Legacy of the Lone Wanderer
by Nathan364
Summary: My path is set ahead of me and I fight for Peace and attempt to travel through this Hellish Wasteland. But the Wasteland changes you, and molds you into something more. I still fight for peace, but it has caused me to become a feared soldier who is cold as steel. The Brotherhood of Steel and Sarah Lyons accepts me for this. I am the Lone Wanderer and this is my Legacy.
1. You are Born and you Die in the Vault

A/N: Hello, this is a rewrite of Legacy of the Lone Wanderer. Don't worry, I have permission from the original Author as we are family. He has told me he is deleting his old works but I am able to use what he already has.

Fallout 3

Legacy of the Lone Wanderer

Chapter 1-

You are born and you die in the vault

I was walking with my squad of heavy armored soldiers in this war torn city that looked like a hell hole. We walked in no particular formation down the streets patrolling and watching out for enemies. This place may have been purified by a brother whom had left a vault but now we are in a war. I stopped and looked at a large tall white building that was war torn but closer to me there was a bus that had been torn in half. The sounds of gun firing and explosions filled the air in the distance of the city. I hear screams of pain muffled by the sounds of war. I saw a missile flying towards a target in the blind spot of our patrol that was across the intersection of a street closer to the tall white monument. It impacted somewhere causing an explosion.

The bus along with the ground shook. It seemed that the explosion somehow activated an old prewar radio as it played a song loudly:

_I don't want to set the world on fire. I just want to start a flame in your heart._

_In my heart I have but one desire and that one desire is you No other will do._

_I've lost all ambition for worldly acclaim. I just want to be the one you love_

The music started dying as the radio began to dye. _And with your admission that you feel the same. I'll have reached the goal I'm dreaming of Believe me..._

The music stopped. I was vaguely aware of a fellow squad mate walking up and looking in the buses direction. I looked at him and he looked at me with his armor and helmet hiding his emotions and expressions. I could however hear his breathing. He held his weapon in a ready position like mine then looked pass me. He pointed at something behind me and I turned to look.

There were two flying vehicles with two propellers flying over pass us over the streets and two more flew below the building tops down the street towards us and began to land in a cleared out area. A squad of five black armored soldiers unloaded from each of them with large rotary weaponry. They all began to march in no particular fashion towards us apparently not spotting us. One by one the aerial vehicles began to hover over their landing point for a split second and flew right towards us. The front one unleashed a barrage of bullets from a mounted mini-gun that was stationed on the front of it. I and my brothers in arms took cover behind rubble and old destroyed cars to avoid the fire. The other launched a missile which exploded down the street they flew towards. The two vehicles flew out of the streets and towards the monument and swerved around either side of it missing it. I sat against this car facing the way they flew. I remembered what our mentor told us about war, where he came from, the brainwashing that goes down in there, and I started remembering the history I learned from my organization. I thought to myself:

_War...War never changes. Since the dawn of human kind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything, from God to justice to simple, psychotic rage._

_In the year 2077, after millennia of armed conflict, the destructive nature of man could sustain itself no longer. The world was plunged into an abyss of nuclear fire and radiation. But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Instead, the apocalypse was simply the prologue to another bloody chapter of human history. For man had succeeded in destroying the world – but war...war never changes._

_In the early days, thousands were spared the horrors of the holocaust by taking refuge in enormous underground shelters, known as vaults. But when they emerged, they had only hell of the wastes to greet them...all except those in Vault 101. For on the fateful day, when fire rained from the sky, the giant steel door of Vault 101 slide closed...and never reopened. It was here you were born. It is here you will die. Because, in Vault 101 no one ever enters and no one ever leaves..._

I opened my eyes and got in a position for a defense. We all began firing at our attackers, red beams flying towards them from our weaponry. They returned fire with red beams and one of them caused fire to rain from the sky. I moved out the way and one of my brothers pulled a missile launcher off his back and fired one right in the middle of the enemy's offensive line killing two. I was leaning against the wall of a building at that moment, and then fired at one of the soldiers advancing on our position. We won surprisingly without casualties and walked cautiously towards the dead patrols. One of them was still alive, but barely. He lay there gasping for air and pulled out a pistol aiming at me. I quickly aimed and shot my weapon right at his head killing him.

I looked up at one of my brothers who looked back at me and nodded. I looked into the setting sun with one hand holding onto my weapon. "_War is hell_," I thought to myself, "_Is this how it was for you? Or did you learn to survive and become famous while doing it? You are indeed the Lone Wanderer and the hero of the Wastes, if you can go through all of this._"

….

….

….

My name is James Medicus Warren. I live in Vault 101 and by order of the Overseer, Alphonse Almodovar, I always have. I was lucky to get in here with my newborn son. His mother died of child birth and I was alone with him. So I decided to leave the Hellish Capitol Wasteland and see if I can find a life for my son, a better one. I was lucky to get in Vault 101 because Alphonse was in desperate need of a medical doctor and there wasn't a good enough experienced one in the vault, until I came. But I knew that if my son ever found out the truth of where he came from he would want to explore it. So I adopted the Overseer's saying. _Everyone is born in the vault, everyone dies in the vault. No one ever comes in and no one ever leaves._

I named my son his mother gave him by her dying wish. His name is Nathan Adams Warren. I gave him that name and one day I hope his name will be marked in history for something good. But really dreams can only take you so far. You have to work on that dream for it to exist. I left good people behind to live in a safer environment underground. My career started off well, I made a few friends and I was finally able to help good people. My friend Jonas became my assistant because that was what he was supposed to be on the Vault's G.O.A.T Exam. He was fond of my son and often helped me out looking after him. Every night though when my son was tired I'd read him a passage from the bible, one that was Catherine's favorite. _Revelation 2:16 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely._

….

I began to realize that my son was special around when he was one years old. He was playing with his toys in our room. I was in his playpen watching him intently. He wore his baby-wear and was playing with his teddy bear.

"Nathan," I called ushering him over to me. I knew it would be a little hard for him to come over, he had just started walking. "Come here son."

He looked at me with his light brown eyes and his Teddy Bear and made a baby noise. "Come here buddy." I said still ushering him over. He staggered towards me with his Teddy Bear in his tiny arms. He was almost to me giggling a little bit. I picked him up with him still holding his Teddy Bear in his arms.

"Look at you," I said to him holding him in my arms, "Only a year old and walking like a pro." I sat him down and walked out the playpen. I closed the door behind me as he grunted because I did. I put a toy car in with him and said, "Listen kiddo. I know you don't like it when I leave you in here by yourself but I have to run to my office and get a few things. I'll only be for a minute."

Nathan blinked and sat down with his toy bear. I walked out our room and closed the mechanic door behind me. I hated leaving him in there by himself but he wasn't allowed in the medical office on Alphonse's orders. I walked around in the hall and saw him playing with the toy car through the window. I walked pass a few other residential suites and up some stairs. My office was right beside his future classroom. I grabbed a clipboard and a file folder and made my way back to my suite. I put the stuff I got on a coffee table and went in our room.

What I saw amazed me. He was out of the open playpen with his teddy bear looking at a page in a book donated from the vault called "You're Special." To be able to get out he would have to climb up and release the latch on the other side.

I couldn't help but laugh a little. "You are quite the little explorer aren't you?" I asked as he looked up at me. I walked over and sat on the ground next to him near a framed picture of the passage Catherine loved. He went to get up but fell forward on my leg grunting. I chuckled and said, "Easy now, you'll fall asleep if you keep exploring like that." I know he probably didn't understand what I was saying but babies needed to have someone talking to them. It would make them happier as they grew up. But he was the only family I had apart from a younger brother somewhere down South from the capitol wasteland so I planned to talk to him all the time.

"You know what your mother's favorite passage is?" I asked contently and picking up the framed photo and showed him. He looked at it with an amazed expression and making a baby laugh. "Revelation 21:6 – I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely."

He laughed again when I finished. Then I remembered what Lilia Almodovar suggested one day to me. Lilia is the wife of Alphonse the overseer and they both had a daughter named Amata. Lilia suggested that Nathan and Amata should play together one day since they got along so well in kiddy school.

"Come on," I said to him and picking him up, "Let's go see if your little friend Amata wants to play." I got up and carried him out the door. We walked down the hallway towards the Overseer's quarters.

Nathan has been growing up so fast. He always wants to learn something. I learned he was no ordinary child when he kept escaping the playpen I tried to keep him in while I was gone for short periods of time. Other times I'd see him looking at kid's books trying to read them or whatever. I am sad to know that his friend, Amata's mother died when she was only two years old. Now that he was older I was allowed to have him in the clinic with me and Jonas. Jonas' father was once the head officer of the vault and knew some hand to hand combat techniques. Jonas did teach him how to punch correctly without breaking his wrist in the process and where to kick if he ever needed to fight, hopefully that day will never come. But Nathan did like helping us even when he was just a seven year old kid.

….

I walked slowly down a hallway on the commons level of the vault. I was told simply to come to the cafeteria. I don't know why I was asked to but my dad did wish me a happy birthday this morning when I woke up. He let me sleep in today but he did tell me to come to the cafeteria in a few minutes. So here I was at the window of the cafeteria near the door. I couldn't see inside because of how frosted the window was. The lights were turned off and everything. I wondered if there was another cafeteria my dad was talking about. Nevertheless I pressed a button on the door control panel and the door slid open. I couldn't see anything but I walked in.

"Hello?" I asked the apparent empty room. The door slid closed behind me and I was engulfed in darkness. That darkness lasted a few seconds then a flash of bright light all but blinded me.

"Happy Birthday!" A lot of people yelled. I rubbed my eyes astounded at the sight in the room and sounds of clapping. There were a lot of people in the room and a robot known as Andy. There was a vault security officer there uniformed except for his helmet, dad, Amata, a bunch of kids whom I go to school with, an old African American Lady whom I knew, and a vault engineer. Of course I knew all of them. Some I was happier to see than others.

Over the clapping I heard the officer say, "Stanley you turned the lights on too bright. You blinded the poor kid." He and the technician laughed at this.

"Happy Birthday son," Dad said looking enthused, "Already ten years old. If only your mother were here…."

Someone interrupted. A man whom had walked through the other door was the one. It was the Overseer, Amata's father. This man was someone I wasn't too fond of but I didn't hate him though.

"Happy Birthday young man," He said interrupting my dad, "I don't have to tell you how special this day is do I?"

"No sir," I replied mannerly.

"Done here in the vault at the age of ten," He said ominously, "you are ready to take on your first official vault responsibility. Here you go kid, your very own Pipboy 3000. You'll be getting your first work assignment tomorrow. Heh, heh."

I knew all about a Pipboy. They were handy gizmos vault dweller wore all the time. I took it and put it on my right arm. After all I was left handed. The overseer sat in front of the old lady and then my dad turned to me.

"Sorry about that son," Dad said sounding a bit annoyed, "go on and enjoy your party." Before I could say anything else Amata came out of nowhere enthused.

"Happy Birthday Nate!" She said excitedly, "Did we surprise you?"

"Surprised me?" I said humorously, "I thought I was just being abducted by aliens."

Amata and some of the other kids laughed. "Your funny," Amata said truthfully, "Your dad thought you were onto us but I told him if I help him with the decorations we'd get it done before you figured us out. No offense but you're so easy to full."

"Haha," I said contently but sarcastically, "Nice one Amata. Now wait until your birthday."

She grinned. "Oh I'm prepared." She said.

"We'll see," I commented back.

"Guess what I got you," Amata asked enthused but quizzical.

Just to mess with her I thought about saying a date with Christine Kendall but she was standing right next to us so that was out. "I'm clueless," I said truthfully.

"Who's your favorite Barbarian?" Amata said playfully.

"Grognak," I said just as playful. Grognak was a character in a comic book series I loved reading those comics but I hardly got to because the Vault didn't have many issues.

"Well," She said contently, "Here you go. Grognak the Barbarian Issue 1. Found it in my dad's old junk pile. Mint condition and everything." She gave me a comic book with a picture of a barbarian wielding an axe.

"Wow!" I said happily, "Thanks Amata!"

"You're welcome," Amata said happily, "I'm not the only person here so get mingling with your guests." With that she walked to a different part of the room.

"Happy Birthday Nathan," the girl named Christine said, "having fun?"

"Yeah thanks Christine," I replied kindly, "You?"

"Yep," Christine replied, "Here I got you a baseball bat for a present. I know you are in the vault's little leagues."

"Cool thanks Christine," I said enthused and taking it.

"You're welcome Nathan," She said happily and she went to talk to another girl named Susie Mack who was her cousin.

I talked to the officer who sat at a bar near the window. He was looking out it looking deep in thought. I walked up to him and he turned around. It was Officer Herman Gomez, a friend of my father and I.

"How you doin' kiddo?" Herman said, "Having a good time?"

"Yeah," I said happily, "what's wrong Officer Gomez?"

He looked at me and smiled. "Nothing kiddo," Herman replied contently, "Just thinking about some stuff that's all. Oh I got you a present! Here's a switchblade for you."

"A switchblade?" I asked incredulously, "No way! This is awesome Officer Gomez!" A switchblade was rare around in the vault. They were cool but expensive.

"Ha ha, no problem," Officer Gomez said happily, "just don't get in any trouble or fights with it okay?" He handed it to me which I put it in my pocket.

"Okay!" I said happily. I was about to walk over to my dad when Susie stopped me.

"Happy birthday Nathan!" She said smiling, "I got you a baseball and Mitt. Me and Christine were working together trying to buy you some of this stuff."

"Cool," I said thankful, "Thanks Susie."

"No problem Nathan," Susie said briskly and went and joined Christine at a table.

A kind hearted African American boy was watching me looking ashamed. It was Paul Hannon. He hung out with a kid who acted like a bully which was a primary result of his mom being a drunk. I walked up to him and asked, "Hey Paul. Enjoying the party?"

"Yeah!" Paul said looking content, "Hey thanks for inviting me and all Nathan."

"No problem," I said smiling realizing that it was Amata and Dad who invited everyone.

"Look I know Butch and I give you a hard time and all," He said rubbing the back of his head, "But you don't take that stuff seriously do you? I mean we don't mean anything by it...well I don't."

"It's okay man," I said smiling, "Don't feel bad about it." Paul looked at me perplexed and smiled back.

"Hey Paul!" A boy said scornfully, "What you making friends with that loser?" At that point I wanted to punch the kid in the face. It was Butch DeLoria, the bully of the Vault.

"Yeah Paul," a boy whom sat in front of butch said, "Get over here. We're your real friends." That was Wally Mack, brother of Susie Mack.

"Uh okay," Paul said gulping slightly. He walked over and sat down with his 'friends.' Another boy was Freddie Gomez whom sat with them. He was always sad about something it seemed like, and he was the son of Herman Gomez.

I walked towards the technician, the man my dad sat by at the counter. It was Stanley Armstrong, the grandfather of Christine Kendal, Susie Mack, and Wally Mack.

"Hey Stanley," I said kindly.

"Hey buddy," Stanley replied, "How do you like that Pipboy?"

"I love it," I said truthfully, "Hey wait a second! Did you program it?"

"Yes I did and I'm glad you like it." Stanley said smiling, "It's a bit basic but it's the most reliable. I prefer this model over the newer one. The Pipboy model 3000A is reliable and has a lot of options the new 3000B model doesn't. It's handier too."

"This is real cool," I said looking at my Pipboy, "But will it ever come off?"

"Amazing not without a skill technician," Stanley said contently, "You need to do all kinds of stuff for it to willingly come off. The thing is this thing never breaks and is water proof."

"It never breaks?" I asked curiously, "how come?"

"Some kind of armor plating and what not," Stanley said, "This thing can take a hit from a bomb and not even have a small scratch. In fact I know it can take a hit from one."

"Whoa," I said happily.

"Oh almost forgot kiddo," Stanley said, "Happy Birthday." He gave me a red baseball cap that was from pre-war times.

"Thanks Stanley!" I said content. I heard the old lady calling me. "Nathan!" She called, "come here quickly please." I did as asked.

"Are you having a good time young man?" She asked with kindness.

"Yes ma'am," I answered truthfully.

"Ten years old already," She said happily, "My how time flies. Here I made a few Sweet rolls just for you."

"Oh Mrs. Palmer you didn't have to get me anything." I said kindly. I didn't want her doing more than she could with her being extremely old and retired from work.

"Oh fiddlesticks," She said smiling, "What ten year old doesn't want a present for their birthday? I wanted to do this anyways."

"Thank you," I said thankful that even old ladies may care about someone, "I appreciate this."

"Oh you're welcome kiddo," Mrs. Palmer said handing me a basket full of Sweet rolls which looked delicious, "And don't go sharing any of these. They are made especially for you and you alone."

"Yes ma'am," I said taking the basket. I gave my basket to Dad whom had put them in front of him on the counter.

"Did you thank her?" He asked me quietly.

"Yes sir," I said truthfully. He nodded in response and was about to say something when Andy the Type II Mister Handy got everyone's attention.

"Attention everyone!" He announced, "It's time to cut the cake." Then he powered up his skill saw that was on the end of one of his three long mechanical arms.

"Andy no!" Amata yelled over the winding of the saw but it was too late. The saw went straight through rapidly launching pieces of cake everywhere.

I couldn't help but feel shocked by the event but I wasn't mad or sad. No, I was amazed at this because I got to see Andy launch cake all over the place like one of those baseball pitching machines.

"Oh! I'm terribly sorry sir," Andy said retracting his arm.

"Whoa don't worry about it," I said looking at his skill saw then at the cake, "That was cool anyway you look at it."

There was a console making a beeping sound. "I'll get it," Dad said getting up. When dad was out of earshot, Butch had decided trying to bully me.

"I'm hungry and that stupid robot destroyed the cake," Butch said tyrantly, "Give me one of those sweet rolls you got from Old Lady Palmer."

"Sorry Butch," I said shortly, "She told me not to."

"She told me not to," He mimicked annoyingly, "I don't care give me it." Okay this was one of those times this kid would get decked in the face. I hated him when he was like this, which was always.

"Nah I'm good," I said getting ready to walk away.

"What did you say?" Butch demanded threateningly, "I'm going to beat you up."

"Try it," I said ill-tempered, "Then you get kicked out by Officer Gomez.

Butch seeming to think things over sat there annoyed. "Fine but we'll settle this when the grownups aren't around," He said annoyed.

Amata seeing what happened called me over to her. "What was that all about?" She asked concerned.

"Butch tried to steal a Sweet roll Mrs. Palmer made for me," I said annoyed, "He is trying to fight me and it won't work. I know how to handle myself thanks to Jonas and Dad."

"Hey kiddo," Dad said walking up to us, "Jonas wants to see you on the reactor level. I don't think anyone will mind if you slip out for a second or two. Amata?"

Amata looked at dad blankly then said, "oh no, go on Nate!"

"Well okay," I said not wanting to disappoint any one.

I exited the room and I was met by a woman that was one of Stanley's daughters, Beatrice Armstrong. "Why hello," She said like she was talking to a baby, "Ten years old! Happy Birthday cutie. I bet you're happy."

"Yes ma'am," I said truthfully.

"I see," Beatrice said, "I made you a gift. It's a poem I wrote just for you."

She handed me a finely printed poem. "Now I have to go kiddo," Beatrice said happily, "See you later."

"Bye," I said and she walked away around the corner. The overseer had walked pass us up some stairs. As I walked pass the stairs I heard him say something.

"I don't like him," He muttered to someone else. There was a response that I couldn't make out.

"Give them a few more minutes Officer Kendall," The overseer said, "Then tell them to get back to work."

"Yes sir," I heard. I prayed to god the Overseer wasn't talking about me. He might've been talking about Butch. Butch and his mother do have a reputation after all.

I found my way down in the reactor room where a tall African American man was in a vault issued white lab coat and had glasses on. It was Jonas Palmer, Mine and my father's friend and grandson of the old lady Lucy Palmer.

"What are you down here young man?" Jonas said business-like, "I thought kids weren't allowed on the reactor level." He had his arms folded but I could sense he was fooling around.

"Hey!" I said, "I'm not a kid! I'm ten years old!" I gave a false angry expression.

Jonas started laughing. "Hey I know," Jonas said smiling, "Hey now that you're ten you don't have to take crap like that from adults. Happy Birthday bud."

"Thanks Jonas," I said grinning, "So what's up?"

"The commons level," Jonas said then laughed a little, "No you're dad and I spent time making you a surprise."

"What kind of surprise?" I asked curiously.

"You're dad's coming," Jonas said grinning, "He'll show you."

I turned around to see my dad coming down the stairs. "Hey kiddo," he said, "You ready for your surprise?"

"Uh sure dad," I said really wanting to know what it is.

He walked over to Jonas' locker and opened it. He pulled out two objects, one long and one that looked like a small cylinder-like container.

He held them out for me. The long object was a gun, it had a brown shoulder butt and the rest was black metal from the trigger to the tip of the barrel. It was a BB gun. The other object was a container for BB pellets.

My mouth dropped. I jumped at dad hugging him. "Thank you Dad!" I exclaimed gratefully.

"Ha ha," Dad said pleased, "No problem son." I let him go and ran at Jonas. He helped too.

I hugged Jonas too. "Thanks Jonas." I said happily.

"No problem kiddo," Jonas said grinning.

Then something came to my mind. "Wait a second," I said, "where can we practice? We can't shoot down here."

"We certainly can't," Dad said, "That's why Jonas spent all this time setting up a shooting range for you."

I turned back to Jonas with an expression. Jonas nodded. "Cool," I said simply. But there was one thing that ran across my mind, where did they get a BB gun? Those things were hard to come by. "Dad? How did you get one of these?"

"I found it in the old part of the vault and started fixing it up with Jonas helping me," Dad said smiling, "It was hard to find a spring small enough to fit in the chamber. It's a good thing Stanley found that switchblade Butch misplaced ha ha."

"Cool," I said eagerly, "Can we go practice now?" Dad handed me the BB gun and I marveled at its smooth structure and finely cut wood. I filled it with BB's from the BB canister as Jonas opened a storage room door. I walked in with them and could see the shooting range.

There were file cabinets acting as walls so the BB's wouldn't ricochet off of three targets onto something else and two filing cabinets laying parallel to the floor acting as something for 'cover.'

"Go on," Dad said encouragingly. He and Jonas stood on either side of me as I stood at the shooting spot. "Remember," Dad said instructing me, "Aim at the targets then shoot."

I rested the butt of the gun to my left shoulder and cocked the BB gun. I made sure I was aiming correctly by closing my right eye and looking down at the pointer. I pulled the trigger and there was a small kick to the gun but and there was a slight "Tink" sound like rock pebbles hitting metal and the target swung back and came back into place.

"Excellent," Dad said pleased, "Two more."

I repeated the same thing with the other one's and shot them easily. "Dang," Jonas said amazed at my accuracy, "Remind me not to make you mad at me. Good shooting."

"Yeah," Dad said pleased, "But remember son, you have to take care of you belongings so repairing it and making sure it works right is an essential okay?"

"Yes sir," I said obediently.

We heard some kind of shuffling and sounds that sounded like ticking. We turned around to see a huge bug on the other side of the filing cabinets. "Careful," Dad said cautiously, "Radroach. They're dangerous down here in swarms. See if you can kill it."

The Radroach was large with paper like wings, long antennae, large black bug like eyes, and six hairy legs. I nodded eager to try my new present on a live target. Radroaches were everywhere most of the time. But the Overseer tries to control their population by keeping the sun lights off. I aimed at the Radroach but studied it intently first. The body had a protective exoskeleton but the head and neck was just flesh pretty much.

I aimed for the head. I pulled the trigger and missed it barely. I cocked the BB gun again and aimed at the head again shot. This time my aim was dead on. The Radroaches body scuttled a bit then died finally.

"That's one less Radroach to take care of," Dad said pleased with my performance, "He Jonas get a picture of me and the big game hunter over here."

"Alright Doc," Jonas said grinning at me and pulling out a camera. That picture was one of my favorite ones I ever took with someone.

….

Six years later I was sixteen and was sitting in my dad's office after a medical examination.

"As far as I can see you are a perfectly healthy sixteen year old boy," Dad said to me, "So yes you have to take the G.O.A.T Exam."

"Do I have to dad?" I asked disappointed, "I thought you said the thing is rigged."

"I know I know," Dad said sighing, "But it's not my call. The Overseer reviews the results personally after Edwin decides what your career will be growing up. Now get moving, I've got other patients who need my attention and good luck."

"Alright Dad," I said getting up off the examination bed, "I'll see you later."

"Goodbye son," Dad said. I walked outside the office as Jonas was talking to Stanley. I walked towards the classroom to see Butch, Wally, and Paul harassing Amata. I walked up to them.

"What's going on here?" I demanded.

"None of you fucking business kid," Butch said annoyed, "beat it." He was leaning against the wall with arms folded.

I already knew what they were doing so I replied with something of my own. "Wow Butch," I said smirking, "You three are really brave messing with the Overseer's daughter like that. He could have you all locked away and thrown in jail for the rest of your miserable lives. You sure you want to mess with her?"

Butch looked slightly uneasy. "Damn," He said realizing I was right, "Yeah whatever you're probably right. Let's go Tunnel Snakes." With that Paul and Wally followed Butch into the classroom.

Amata turned to me thankful. "Thanks for getting rid of those three for me." She said annoyed, "Assholes always messing with me. I don't know why they won't leave me alone. I guess it's because I'm the overseer's daughter or something I don't know. Come on let's get in and take this stupid exam."

"Yeah sure," I said slightly frightened of her. Amata was the devil when she was angry. I followed behind her into the classroom and Mr. Edwin Brotch met me at the door but greeted Amata as she walked pass.

"Good morning Nate," He said, "Ready for the G.O.A.T?"

"Yeah," I said reluctantly but quietly, "But my dad said this thing was rigged."

Mr. Brotch looked around then pulled me out the classroom. "Listen," Mr. Brotch said quietly, "I know you've got talent for a lot of things. Since you're father and I are friends and all I can let you bypass the test and let you pick out your career. I can make the test results add up to that."

"What about Amata?" I asked, "If she finds out she will pretty much hate me." She was actually the only friend I had down in the vault that was my age.

"Don't worry," Mr. Brotch said quietly, "She'll do great and you won't have to worry about her. She is the Overseer's daughter after all." The way he said this it was like Mr. Brotch was insinuating something. I bet it had something to do with her father, oh the fruits of being the overseer's daughter, I can see her now as the replacement for him.

"Okay," I said thankful Mr. Brotch would be so kind to do this for me.

"Alright," Mr. Brotch said, "I'm going to give you a spare test. Just sit down and act like you're taking it. When everyone leaves I'll fill it out for you."

"Yes sir," I said doing as ordered. I was forced to sit in front of Christine Kendall. Mr. Brotch read through the questions and expected everyone to mark them down. I just read the answers for the heck of it. I looked in front of me to see Freddie Gomez struggling clutching his hair. The last question was totally biased. It was:

_Who is indisputably the most important person in Vault 101: He who shelters us from the harshness of the atomic wasteland and to whom we owe everything we have, including our lives?_

Well that should be a no brainer even if you don't look at the four answers that would all be marked the same answer. _The Overseer._ "That's fucked up," I commented reading it over again.

"Nathan, are you disregarding the Overseer?" Christine asked from behind me. Sheesh, that girl was always trying to get me in trouble. I fixed her though with a clever comment.

"Uh no," I said quickly, "Just thinking about how if your grandma asks you to shoot someone and you want a Minigun so you don't miss."

She left it at that but I heard a little bit of laughter. "Alright pencils down and turn in your papers to me," Mr. Brotch said walking over to the projector and turning it off. He then walked to his desk.

I sat and listened to everyone's results except Freddie Gomez. Amata was suited for a supervisory career. Christine was going to work in the Maintenance department with her grandfather Stanley which she was infuriated over. Susie was going to have a teaching career. Paul to his relief would work as an engineer which I was glad for him. Wally didn't even stay to listen to his results; he just said he knew what he'll be. With that Mr. Brotch was amazed at his paper. Wally apparently cheated on the test because Mr. Brotch said, "Well I'll be damned, I wish I had thought of that when I was sixteen. He's going to be a Security Officer."

I was curious about how he did it but I wasn't going to go asking. Susie and Freddie were talking about meeting in the cafeteria for something. I knew they both had crushes on each other but if Freddie didn't hurry up he was going to blow the chance of them being together. He whispered to me, "Hey I was going to go with the first answer for question ten, is this a trick question?"

"No just mark one," I said almost laughing. Freddie had problems with depression and low self esteem. He wanted to be apart of the Tunnel Snakes just to belong somewhere but I couldn't see him doing it.

"Okay," Freddie said mumbling to himself, "Now should I obey grandma or not for question five?"

Finally it was Butches turn. I listened intently on this one. Mr. Brotch did not like Butch at all because of his delinquent ways.

"Oh Butch," Mr. Brotch said enjoying himself, "Let me savor the moment. I've been waiting a very long time for this one."

"Aw come on teach," Butch said slightly nervously, "Don't be like that."

"Well let's see," Mr. Brotch said looking over Butches exam. He stared at it for a long time. "Well I'll be damned," He finally said sounding amazed, "I didn't think you had it in you Butch."

"What Teach?" He said obviously seeing this as something good.

"You're going to be…" Mr. Brotch said dramatically then paused, "A hairdresser! Congratulations Butch." Okay I couldn't help but to almost die of laughter. I had to cover my mouth with the palm of my hand to quit.

"A hairdresser!" Butch yelled, "No it's a Barber! Got that Teach!" With that he stormed out. Mr. Brotch chuckled a bit then turned to Freddie in front of me.

"You okay Freddie?" He asked slightly concerned. Freddie was sweating and still stuck on number five.

"Yeah," Freddie said gulping nervously, "Just dandy." I looked at Mr. Brotch whom ushered me over to him.

"That could take a while," Mr. Brotch whispered about Freddie, "So what are your interests?"

I thought about that for a second. "Well," I whispered back, "I'm into learning new stuff and Medical things, but I also like repairing my belongings and target practice."

Mr. Brotch looked at the paper a bit of thought then wrote down answers. "I've got one for you," He finally said, "Vault Scientist. That sound up your alley?"

I thought about it for a second. "Yeah," I said content with the results.

….

My future was bright apparently, thanks to Mr. Brotch which I was eternally thankful for having as a teacher. I became a scientist whom the Overseer tasked me with two jobs: aiding my father and helping Stanley in his department. I couldn't ask for a better life. If only back then I had realized what my dad's intentions were….

Chapter 1 complete….

A/N- Yeah I know, you've probably read a lot of these Fallout 3 story fanfics but hey you can't argue with a great game where you can pretty much do anything you want. I hope I can make this story interesting. After all it will shape the events of the other Fallout fanfic I'm writing. Trust me I know there are things that did not happen in the game but hey, creativity is important in writing stories. Please Review; I don't care what kind of a review it is.


	2. No one ever enters, someone is leaving

Chapter 2-

No one ever enters, but someone is leaving

_Everything was perfect in the Vault. I had a well-paying job and I had friends that included Amata. Nothing seemed to go wrong. That is until dad left and my life entered Hell…_

…

_I was the Vault Overseer. I made sure there was peace in the Vault and everyone was working their hardest in their careers. I had found a way to stop Radroaches from taking over the Vault and even created a way for the Vault to have unlimited supplies of food and water. Everything was going perfect until Amata came to me and said, "Wake up!"_

I slowly came to consciousness lying on my bed hearing an awful blaring sound and my lights turned down to a dim. I was slowly able to see straight and the first thing I saw was the lights outside of my window in the hall were off and a Yellow spinning light going off. I was vaguely aware of a person standing next to me as I drowsily looked up at her. It was Amata.

"Nathan!" She yelled over the blaring alarm, "Wake up!"

"Amata?" I mumbled shaking my head a bit and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, "What is it? What's going on?" I yawned sitting up and looking drearily out the window.

"It's your dad Nathan!" Amata said looking out my bedroom door then turned frantically back at me, "He's left the Vault!"

"Huh?" I exclaimed getting up, "What do you mean left the vault? That's impossible!" It really was. The overseer had made it a point to enforce this idea too. _It was here you are born. It is here you will die. Because in Vault 101 no one ever enters and no one ever leaves. _That quote plagues the minds of every Vault 101 resident. The Overseer has taught us this martial law and he has somehow proven it true.

I believed that this quote was true; I mean I was taught all my life that I was. Well me and every other Vault 101 Resident. I continued to listen to Amata's false words.

"I thought so too Nate," Amata said looking distraught, "But it's true. I swear to you that he has left and my father…he is sending guards after you!" She looked like she was on the verge of tears but I couldn't react well to seeing her this way.

I was preoccupied with the accusations of my father leaving. My dad, he couldn't have left, he just couldn't have. It was impossible; the door has never been opened before. But apparently it is possible because my dad, my own father who had failed to tell me he was going to attempt such a feat had left without telling me. Why? Why did he leave the Vault? Why did he leave me? Why did he leave the Vault knowing we had it made in this cold, dark, underground safe zone? He had told me never to even try to leave the Vault. He used to tell me there was nothing outside the Vault but Hell and misery, nothing but death and survival, nothing but, nothing but….

I couldn't bear to think about his lifelong lessons right now. It was driving me insane. He had broken the rules of the very values and lessons he had taught me; lessons and Values that would keep me safe from the outside world and have a good life down here. My body started shaking at the mere thought of losing my only family. Mom was gone, even though I never knew her. And now Dad? How could he leave me here? How could he do such a thing to his only son? I wanted answers, answers that I knew that I couldn't get without breaking out of this safe haven. I needed to get out, out now where I could try and locate my father. Then in the back of my mind locked away under my own selfishness I remembered Amata being there and what she had told me.

"Your father?" I asked wearily, "He is sending officers after me?"

"Yes," Amata said shaken. She looked like she was about to collapse out of sheer nerves.

"But why?" I asked confused slightly, "What did I do?" I helped her sit on my bed as I got up and paced nervously back and forward from my bed to my door.

"He thinks you helped your dad escape," Amata said pleadingly, "He thought Jonas helped him too. He ordered Officer Allen Mack to beat it out of Jonas. And Jonas….and Jonas is…..is…..Jonas is dead Nate! They beat him and beat him until I think he died of internal bleeding." A tear had finally rolled down her cheek.

I stood there not uttering a word, dumbfounded, shocked knowing that one of my friends who worked with my father was murdered under the observation of someone who was supposed to be leading our Vault. I fell to my knees at the thought of it. Instead he, the man responsible for the murder of a close friend and responsible for leading chaos into our midst, over my father, James Medicus Warren, for leaving this _underground sanctuary_.

"So they killed Jonas," I said weakly, "And I'm next right?" I was too shaken. No one, no one had ever had to put up with as much as this, the idea of living in the vault was to live here having a good and safe life, but no, it was Hell now, hell because the entire Vault was under lockdown and the Overseer had become mad with power.

"Yes," Amata said crying, "Please Nate. I have to know! Did you know what your dad was going to do?" I looked at the ceiling eyes stinging from trying to cry but I held it in. The last thing I needed right now was to cry. I wanted to cry over Jonas, my dad and what he caused, Amata, and me…..I wanted to cry for me…..because now I felt a huge burden of hatred and sadness wash over me. It was something I had never felt before but I answered her.

"No," I said truthfully and felt a twinge of anger towards my father, "He didn't tell me a thing. He didn't tell me a God dammed thing!" My face felt like it was burning with anger but also I felt sadness underneath it all. I punched the wall next to me and slouched to the ground. I didn't know how much more I could take.

Amata looked at me sympathetically. "I'm so sorry Nate," She said trying to dry up her tears, "I didn't…..didn't realize you were in the blue as much as I was. I mean he was your father and everything." She breathed uneasily.

I got up looking at her. "I have to leave," I said wearily and confidently, "I have to know why my dad left."

"I know," Amata said trying to keep from crying, "If you don't my dad will have the guard's kill you like they did Jonas." That thought of Jonas sickened me. I felt a cold shiver travel up my spine. "If you're going to escape you have to go through my dad's office. My father has officers with guns stationed in the Atrium entrance to the Vault door."

"Okay," I said agreeing with her, "But Amata how am I going to get pass those guards? If they are in the Atrium then I'm trapped."

"Here," Amata said to me, "Take this." She handed me a gun that had a square like barrel and chamber. It was a gun called a 10mm gun. She handed me two more clips too. "I stole this from my father. He was going to use it on….you if he found you and you didn't give him answers."

I looked at the gun. If I was going to get out of here, I was going to need it. "Thank you Amata," I said thankful to have her as a friend, "I promise I will only use it if I have to."

"Okay," Amata said looking relieved, "I'll meet you at the door. But please Nate, I'm begging you, please be careful."

"I will," I said honestly, "Now get going before you get caught with me." With that Amata got up and almost ran out my Residential suite.

I closed my eyes praying that I could do this. I prayed that I could go through with this, leaving my home. I prayed that I would find my father. I opened my eyes and grabbed an old backpack I used during my school days. I pulled open my dresser drawer and loaded two folded Vault 101 jumpsuits in the back pack. I moved over to my desk where my baseball bat and BB gun lay with a repair kit for the BB gun. I grabbed my baseball and catcher's mitt as well stuffing them in with my clothes. I put my small box like repair kit and container of BB's in a pouch in the backpack. I opened a drawer revealing a photo book. I put it in my backpack as well. I moved to my personal Med-kit that hung on the wall and opened it. There was a tiny plastic container in it with medical supplies alongside it. I didn't care what I would need and didn't, I just shoved it all in my backpack and walked to towards the exit.

My mind raced as I turned out of my home. Then I looked ahead to see an officer in full uniform walking my way. I was about to run for it but I forgot it was a one way exit. "Hey hold it right there!" The officer said pointing his finger at me. I recognized the voice. It was Officer Kendall, Christine's father.

But then something happened that I never thought would. A swarm of Radroaches came out of nowhere from a space that separated a wall from my window.

"Crap!" Officer Kendall said pulling out his police baton, "More roaches!" The Radroaches began to pounce at him but Kendall smashed them to the ground one by one. He had to take down at least five of them. He turned to me and said, "Come here boy! Now! You are under arrest."

"Sorry," I said defiantly, "I don't know what I did and I am innocent. So no go."

"Fine then," Officer Kendall said aggressively, "I'll just beat you to a pulp."

I pulled out my baseball bat as Officer Kendall ran at me. He swung at me with his Police Baton but I blocked it and swung back with my bat around his waist. He jumped back to avoid it and swung down. I used both my hands on the bat on opposite ends and blocked the swing down. When it hit my bat I used my leg and foot to push him away with a kick by the abdomen. He fell back out of the force and I swung down at his head. I hit dead on and he became motionless and his baton rolled out his hand. With his helmet on it shouldn't have killed him but I checked his pulse just in case. He was unconscious, good; at least I can continue knowing I hadn't killed anyone yet. I picked up his police baton and put it in my pocket. I dragged him into my old home and took off his body armor. It couldn't stop a bullet but it could take a hit from a bat or other police baton. I pulled it over my head and strapped it tightly to me upper body. I turned off the lights in my old home so it would confuse Officer Kendall for a little bit if he woke up before I got out of here.

I continued down the hall ready for any officers who wanted to stop me. Then I heard someone's voice. It sounded like Butch.

….

I ran through the Vault hallway trying to get to my father's office. I wasn't even at the Atrium yet. I couldn't believe this was happening. My father had gone mad with power and was punishing the entire vault for one man's actions. It wasn't right; he was pushing things too far. I couldn't bear it any longer. If I could help my best friend escape so he could be safe and find his father I would I would even sacrifice my wellbeing to see my father stopped. As I ran up some stair towards that led to the Clinic something caught me off guard. I was hit in the head by a police baton from a corner. I fell to the ground slowly losing consciousness but I did hear someone's voice, my father's.

"Good work Officer Mack," I heard before slipping unconscious, "bring her to the detention room."

….

"Nathan!" I heard Butches voice. I looked up ahead on the left side of the hallway where Butch stood there shaken. I quickened my pace going to make it to the stairs before he could pull something.

He got in front of me. "You've got to help me," He said shaken, "My mom is being attacked by Radroaches."

I almost laughed at the Irony. "Oh Butch," I said about to laugh, "If only you knew how ironic this is."

"Yeah I know," Butch said realizing what I was saying, "But this isn't about me. I can't do a thing about them Radroaches. They're killing my mom!"

"Alright, alright chill," I said following alongside him to his home. I pulled out my police baton and could see a dismal sight. Three Radroaches were pouncing on a woman biting her. I swung at one and pulled another off and stomped its head on the ground. The other turned around and pounced at me clicking madly. I swung at it in midair and the force sent it flying against the bedroom window and its guts hanging out like a squashed bug.

I put my police baton back in my pocket and breathed a bit hard. Mrs. DeLoria got up and staggered to the other room in a drunken state. Butch came through the door happy as he could be. "We did it!" He yelled happily then spoke, "or you did it. You're one of the tunnel snakes now Nathan. Here, have my Jacket." He took off his jacket and walked to his mom who passed out on the couch.

I took the jacket slinging it over my shoulder and walked out his home. I walked up the stairs I had originally planned on going up before Butch called me down. I was on the Commons level now. All the lights were off on this level except on yellow spinning light near another flight of stairs. I turned on my Pipboy light which illuminated the surrounding area. I could hear clicking from the Cafeteria. These were Radroach clicks. I walked in Police Baton ready. Then I saw the most gruesome sight I've ever seen. It was an old lady who was missing flesh off of one hand and half her face was torn away and Radroaches were eating away at her skin. It was Grandma Taylor, a nice old lady whose husband was a senior police officer. I almost threw up at the sight. I knew Radroaches were mostly scavenger predators but I've never seen them in action. In fact I wish I didn't now.

I went in and beat all seven Radroaches killing them. That was no way for an old woman to die. I let my nausea clear as I staggered out the door from the smell. When I could smell clean air again I continued going up some stairs walking towards the Clinic level. It surprised me to see what I was looking at now. Andy the Mister Handy that followed Stanley everywhere was torching Radroaches with a magnificent flame that shot from one of its arms.

"I love doing this!" Andy said with an overjoyed voice. Then I saw a security guard pounding away at one of the roaches.

"Over there Andy!" I heard him say swinging his baton at one in midair and smashing it to the wall. I could see where he was talking about, there were three Radroaches coming from the left of them. Andy turned his torch at those three. He turned his long arm at the group and ignited them with a well-placed flame. But these Radroaches wouldn't give up there were five more coming out of the vent closer to me. I was in the darkness keeping quiet. There were two choices I could take. The first choice was to stay hidden and hope this officer and Andy will take out the Radroaches and move on somewhere. The second choice was to help them and pray that the officer wouldn't try to take me into custody.

One? Two? One? Two? One! Ah fuck it. I ran up with my Baton out and jumped on top of one of the Radroaches and swung my Police Baton at another. I used my free hand to pick one up and throw it at the nearby wall. I swung at it killing it. The officer saw me and threw his Baton at one of the Radroaches dazing it for a split second. Andy turned and roasted the same one and the other as quickly as possible.

The Officer looked at me through his helmets plastic facial protection. I raised my Police Baton threateningly. He stepped back a bit. "Relax Nathan," the officer said taking off his helmet, "Oh you're lucky I was the one who found you. The others won't be as forgiving."

"Officer Gomez?" I asked looking at him.

"Yeah," Officer Gomez said, "I don't believe your father actually did anything wrong. I don't know where you're going and I don't want to know why."

"Wait," I said putting two and two together, "Do you know about Jonas?"

"I hate Steve," Officer Gomez said, "He killed Jonas for no reason, just to satisfy his freaking master like a well-trained dog. I promise you Nathan, I had nothing to do with it."

"Fine I believe you," I said truthfully. Officer Gomez rarely 'hated' anyone. He wouldn't lie about a mutual friend like that.

"Okay whatever," Officer Gomez said sounding angry, "Get out of here before you get caught."

"No problem," I said as I looked in the clinic, "But hang on a second." I walked inside the clinic where Stanley sat at a table shaken by the events. I walked into my father's old office and looked around for anything that might indicate why he left. I looked on the floor in front of his overturned desk to see a Bobble head figurine holding a medicine syringe. It was something my dad loved. He told me it was a gift from mom. I grabbed it and put it in my backpack. There was a light flickering as its circuitry was torn out by something. I noticed something on the wall that was framed. I walked over to it and read it.

_Revelation 2:16 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely._

It was mom's favorite passage from the bible. I had to remember my mother for something, even though I had never seen her face before. I pulled the frame off the wall to see a holodisk and a small cloth bag with a '300' marked on the tag that held it together. Whatever these things were they belonged to dad so I put them in my backpack. Everything else was useless. I walked over into the clinic and into my locker. I pulled out medical supplies and put them in my backpack. I was running out of room in it but I couldn't worry about that now. To keep my morale up I thought about finding my dad on the outside of the Vault door. I walked out the clinic and continued up another flight of stairs that lead to the Atrium.

I could see a pair of Vault dwellers talking. It was the Holden couple. One ran at the hallway that led to the vault door. Then gunshots fired and the man dropped dead. "Tom!" His wife screamed running to aid him but she too was shot down. I looked helplessly as she died from the hallway I was on. I had to get across that Atrium to the upper level.

I crept up to the hall where the gunshots came from to see two officers standing in front of a door at the end of the hallway each wielding 10mm pistols. I refused to kill anyone but they had to be stopped. They would kill anyone who came their way. With reflexes I quickly moved on the other side of the entranceway a bullet narrowly missing me. I heard one of them say, "I'll check it out."

I pulled out my police Baton and hid in a door way with stairs. Someone had placed lockers at the door way so the door couldn't close. It was stuck trying to close and reopen. The light flickered too apparently due to the power the door was draining trying to close. I could hear the footsteps of the security officer as he came closer. I waited for him and found the light switch. I turned it off. I had a plan that where he would think the light finally died due to the power drain and not think anything of it. When he would pass I would knock him out from behind. I kept as quiet as I could staying as close to the wall as I could. Then I saw the barrel of the gun move slowly pass me with two arms holding it.

It was him alright. I swung at the officer's wrist with my baton causing him to drop the gun grunting in pain and a random shot went off. I quickly shoved him against the wall and punched him at the exposed part of his head from the helmet, his ear. He tried to regain balance by pushing my off and then attempting to reach for his own police baton. I swung mine at his face which of course only stunned him because of the protective guard. He quickly regained and threw me at the flight of stairs in which I fell to it on my back. He pulled out his police baton breathing hard.

I caught his arms as he swung down stopping him from connecting that hit. I used the position I was in to gather my leggings and push him off with my feet. He fell back and stumbled into the locker. I took this opportunity to get up and swing my baton at him. He ducked trying to avoid it but I had predicted this and kneed him in the chin with one of my legs. I swung sideways at his ear. He fell limped and I checked his pulse. He was still alive, good.

I picked up his gun and looted his unconscious body of three clips. My victory was short lived as I heard the other officer say something. "Officer O'Brian?" I heard, "You get him?" The officer walked around the corner of the hallway he was standing in. I panicked and looked at the unconscious officer's helmet.

"Yeah," I said roughly and putting the helmet on, "Just some kid. Come here, you know him?" I prayed this would work. It did, the officer put his fire arm in his holster and walked this way.

"Turn on the light," the officer said looking towards the unconscious officer. He was in swinging distance now.

"Fine," I said as he got stood at his unconscious partner. I flipped on the lights and he looked up at me wide eyed. But it was too late I was already in mid-swing. He dropped like a rock knocked out. I took his firearm and last clip content with myself. "Thank god Jonas taught me something before that monster killed him." I said to myself. I didn't know what I was going to do with these three firearms but I decided to keep them. If the need should ever arise I could use one of them to repair the other. I walked up the stairs just to encounter a few Radroaches all foraging on the ground.

I quickly killed the six of them and was about to walk out into the top level of the Atrium when "WAM!" Another Radroach had jumped off a wall straight at me. I caught it by the body and ripped its wings off then threw it over the ledge. That was a near death experience I would not stand for, dying by a giant retarded looking bug.

...

I slowly came to consciousness. I was sitting in a chair that was in a familiar room. It was the detention room. In front of me were my father and Officer Steve Mack. They looked at me intently but Officer Mack was wild eyed and looked crazed. I gulped as my father spoke up.

"Amata," my father said to me, "Tell me where your friend is."

"I don't know," I sort of said truthfully.

"Amata," My dad said sounding slightly annoyed, "If you don't tell me the truth, I'm afraid it'll just be more punishment for you."

"More punishment?" I asked like my father was clueless, "Dad you had me knocked out and dragged here for walking in the hall!"

"I have my reasons," My dad said coldly, "Now just tell me where your friend is and what he's planning. Then you can go."

"I don't know!" I said again.

My father sighed. "Very well," He said looking sad, "Officer Mack?" Officer Mack nodded and grinned. He swung at my with his police baton.

….

I made my way towards a room with large power towers in the room taking off my helmet and throwing it to the side. But before I got there, there was someone at a window yelling at me.

"It's you," He yelled as his wife was sitting at a table facing the other direction, "This is all your fault! You and your stupid father! He had to go mess things up for the rest of us. I'm gonna kick your ass. Guards! Over here!" Of course I knew who this man was. It was Allen Mack, father of Wally, Steve, and Susie.

I looked up ahead in the room ahead to see a shadow of someone coming down the hall on the other end of the room. It was dark in there, maybe if I would hide behind one of the towers he would pass by. But if I did he would notice the man trying to get me in trouble. I went with it anyways. I quickly slipped in the room and hid behind the nearest tower. I peered around watching him come and go. And just as expected he stopped at the window.

I heard a muffled voice. I crept around to the side of the doorway and peer at him. "What is it Allen?" The officer asked sounding annoyed. I recognized this officer. It was Paul Hannon Sr., Paul's father. He was the security chief.

There was more muffled talking. "Are you okay Allen?" Paul asked annoyed, "Quit making all that racket before I arrest you for disturbing the peace."

Then even I heard it. "He went in there Paul! Nathan went in there!"

"What?" Paul asked. I took this as an opportunity to shove Paul Sr.'s head into the window which knocked him unconscious. "Sorry," I mumbled.

"You'll get yours kid!" Allen yelled at me, "You hear me? You will pay for that!" I just shook my head and kept on walking. I didn't have time to try and reason with Allen. He was always over protective and eccentric. I walked out the room and found myself in the hall way that separated the detention room and the Overseer's office.

Then I heard voices coming from the Detention room. "Be reasonable Amata," I heard the Overseer's voice and I peered through the window, "Officer Mack may enjoy this but I don't. Just tell me where he is."

"I swear I don't know anything," Amata wept, "What does he have to do with any of this anyways?"

"Probably nothing," The overseer said, "That's why you need to tell me where he is, so I can talk with him." Liar! That is a bold face lie. Steve would pounce on me like a Butches mom on Vodka, or at least try. "Why would you help him anyways?" the overseer said.

"He's my friend," Amata said in tears, "I was worried about him. Just please let me go, I don't know anything!"

"You're leaving me no choice Amata," Her father, if that's what you would call him, said sounding annoyed, "Officer Mack?"

Steve swung his police baton at the side of her face. That tears it. I got up and walked in the open door and grabbed the back of Steve's uniform and slung him into the cell room then closed and locked the door on him. Amata ran out of the room in tears as I advanced on her father. I grabbed a pair of handcuffs off a desk and handcuffed one of his hand's to a pipe on the wall.

"You should learn how to control your pets Alphonse." I said ill-tempered, "He might bite off more than he can chew." With that I could see Steve banging on the barred window angrily and with a crazed expression.

"You delinquent!" The overseer said, "Release me this instant!" He struggled with the handcuff trying to wiggle out I guess.

"Nah I'm good," I said looking back at the overseer, "How the Hell did that psychopath become a security guard? Honestly Alphonse you need to pick someone who isn't strung out on Jet, booze, and who doesn't look constipated all the time."

"You will address me as Overseer!" the Overseer said angrily, "Not by my name."

I laughed sinisterly at this. "Oh you lost the right to be named that when you had that gorilla in that cage over there murder Jonas," I said putting away my Police Baton, "You think you deserve to be the leader of this Vault? No Alphonse you crossed the line ordering your pets to murder everyone who disobeyed you." I pulled out one of my 10mm pistols as Steve started hitting the glass of the window with his Police Baton.

I held the barrel to his head as he explained himself. "I did it for the good of the Vault," He spoke angrily, "Jonas was involved in a violation of the law. He wouldn't cooperate and that's what led to his execution."

"Execution?" I said pushing the gun a bit, "You think you can decide when someone is supposed to die around here Alphonse? Listen you keep acting this way the Vault will slip into Chaos! But that's a little too late to avoid that. You started something that will ruin you and this vault!"

"I started it!" The overseer exclaimed infuriated, "If your father hadn't left the vault this would not have happened! Don't you remember our most sacred rule! _You are born in the Vault, You live in the vault, and you die in the Vault. No one ever enters and no one ever leaves!_ Do you remember that? It's the rule your father broke! The rule he broke that will bring danger to our Vault!"

I pistol whipped him with the butt of my gun and pressed the end of the barrel at his forehead wanting so desperately to pull the trigger, but I couldn't. I wasn't that kind of a person. "You've gone mad with power," I said shaking with anger, "You crazed, egotistical, selfish maniac! Think of others before you decide what is right for a change. If you had dealt with this mannerly no one had to die. Jonas, the Holden couple, and Grandma Taylor would be alive, you hear me? They would still be here trying to talk this entire situation over with you. But no you had to kill them in order to preserve your selfish dream of remaining as Overseer. My dad was a threat wasn't he? That's why you've gone berserk because you can't have someone disobeying the rules. Well you know what? You're about to see another person walk out of this Vault old man!"

The Overseer looked at me like I was the devil or something. I didn't care, the man knew how to piss someone off and today isn't his lucky day to do so. He finally spoke after he realized this was a battle he could not win.

"Fine," The man said defeated, "Do as you wish. Take my terminal password and office key with you. Just leave them at the Vault Entrance. Get out of here." He pulled a holodisk and key out his pocket and gave them to me.

"You're lucky for me to even think about considering it," I said putting my gun in my pocket and taking the key and holodisk, "You keep doing what you're doing. I won't be around when you lose everything you have, including…..Amata." I twirled the handcuff keychain around my finger, crouching down, and sat it at his feet a little far enough where he could slide it with them to his free arm. "Reach for it," I said getting up.

As I was about to walk out the door I could hear Steve yelling insanely and still beating on the window. "Ah quit having a period," I yelled back, "You're supposed to be a man you insane fuck!" I closed the door behind me and walked across the hall to see a body lying on the ground. It was Jonas, beaten to a bloody pulp. It looked like he was holding something in his hand even after death. It was a holodisk. It was titled, _To Nate_. I put it in my backpack deciding to listen to it later, and looked into the eyes of Jonas. His mouth was caked in blood and his white lab coat was stained in it as well. His face, once handsome for someone like him, was beaten up like some guy in a horror movie thanks to that psychopath locked up in a cage.

"I'm so sorry Jonas," I said to his corpse falling to my knees, "I wish I could have done something." I felt like crying on the spot as my eyes stung trying to hold it in. I didn't know how much more I could take. Jonas, Grandma Taylor; both were dead and not to mention the Holden family. I just didn't know anymore. Why did something so wrong have to happen because of one little mistake; a mistake that had driven a power hungry man into spreading chaos throughout the Vault. I was so out of it I didn't even realize I got myself up.

"I promise Jonas," I said truthfully, "I will honestly never forget you. You were one of my true friends." I closed my eyes in prayer, praying to god that he would be in heaven. That was the least he deserved. I opened my eyes, leaned down and closed his dark empty eyes, then placed his glasses back on.

I heard sniffling from the room across from the Overseer's door. I walked in it to see Amata crying at a table with her hands holding her head like she had gone insane or something.

"Amata?" I asked softly. I hated seeing her like this, especially when it was mostly about her father.

"Thank you Nate," She said eyes tearing, "I told you he wasn't right. I told you he was going crazy. He had Steve hit me. Me! His own daughter."

I looked at her sympathetically for having a father like that. "I know," I said understandingly, "I can't blame you for crying. But don't let it consume you. It'll just hurt you worse." I was speaking from experience.

She looked at me and wiped her tears away. "Thank you," She said, "Go on, I'll catch up."

"Alright Amata," I said finally and with that I walked to the overseers office door and unlocked it. I walked over to his terminal using the password which was surprisingly "Amata." I scanned through the options and found one that said, "Open Overseer's tunnel."

I clicked on that one and the crescent shaped desk behind me lifted up off the floor and the metal flooring slid back to reveal a staircase down a hallway. I walked down it and opened a door. I passed through a storage-like place then through another door. I was in a box shaped room all metal except one stone indenture with a switch beside it. I walked over and activated the switch. The stone indenture slide down into the ground to make a large doorway for me to pass through. I was in a large room full of machinery that looked like it pressurized the room. There was a large door mechanical arm that looked large enough to lift anything it wanted to. Then I saw the outline of a cog shaped object imbedded into a wall. I could see a control panel which most likely operated the mechanical arm.

I stroked the console and looked at the Cog shaped outline. This had to be it. I just knew it. I was about to press a button when Amata walked up from the same way I did.

"Well you did it," Amata said happily but sad at the same time, "Now you just need to open the door."

I smiled thinking back on this two hour ordeal that just occurred. It didn't seem like it took that long but I guess when you were under pressure and being hunted down you forget the little things like that.

"Thanks," I said gratefully, "I couldn't have done it without your help." I can't lie; I'd probably be dead now if it wasn't for her.

Amata laughed a bit. "The only thing I managed to do was get caught by Steve and my…..father." She said sadly.

"If it wasn't for you waking me up," I reminded her, "I'd be dead probably. You risked your life for mine."

"You did too," She pointed out, "You saved me from those two."

"So we're even?" I asked.

"Not yet," She said shaking her head.

"What?" I asked confused, "How come?"

"You still haven't escaped yet," Amata said, "Find your father and find out why he left. Then we can call it even."

"Okay," I said smiling. I thought about something for a split second and decided to try my luck.

"Amata?" I asked hoping she'd answer to my benefit, "Would you come with me? Out there with me?"

Amata looked at the Cog shaped lines. "Trust me," She said conflicted, "It's tempting, but my place is here. We both have similar goals Nathan. We both want our dad's saved. I want my dad saved from himself and you want your dad saved from out there. We both want to find out why they are acting the way they are now."

I thought about her words knowing them to be true. I nodded agreeably.

"Find your dad Nate," Amata told me, "And I'll try my best to change mine. Deal?" She put her hand out for a handshake and I took it commenting by saying, "deal."

I turned to the console breathing a bit hard at the nostalgia of the day. I pressed a green button on the console. An alarm went off that echoed loudly throughout the room and the mechanical arm let out steam from its small exhaust ports. It extended towards the Cog shaped indenture and locked in. Then I heard the most awful scraping sound in the vault as it was so sharp that Amata had to cover her ears and I closed one eye making a face at it. I watched the arm pull the Cog out of its spot with the loud scraping sound as the ten ton door slid out towards us for a little bit then roll on tracks towards the right. Outside of the door was a rocky tunnel that had light melting through wooden planks at the end. I looked at Amata who smiled and nodded encouragingly. The metal stopped and I could hear people coming from the other side of a door.

"They've opened the door!" I heard one shout.

"Stop them!" I heard another shout.

"Good bye," I said to Amata who backed away into the way she came.

"Bye," She mouthed back just as two guards came bursting through the door with police batons.

"Get him!" one said and they charged me. I pulled out my police baton and blocked a swing from one and the other went around me and vaulted over railing to be between me and my exit. I shoved the one who swung first onto the stairs only to turn around and block another swing from the other officer.

I then punched him with my free hand knocking him back and the other officer swung at me hitting my back. I barely felt it because of my armor but I turned around and grabbed his weapon and used the weight of his hand to knock him with it. The other kind of bear hugged me and attempted slam me to the ground but I got my footing and shoved him back into the railing. I took off my backpack and threw it out the door ready to grab it and run when I got rid of these two guys.

Breathing hard I looked back and forward at both of them who looked slightly exhausted. Then my luck failed me finally. Out of the way I came was five officers and one of them was Mr. Crazy man himself, Steve. They all surrounded me like a pack of ravenous wolves. God how was I going to get out of this one? The overseer watched intently from behind Steve who looked like a complete maniac. Even Officer Gomez was here, forced to attack a friend, me!

The two behind me came first I used one's on weight to flip under him as he dove for me and push him down straight to the ground while simultaneously swinging my Police Baton at the other. Just when I regained my footing Steve tackled me like an animal by the abdomen sending us both backwards towards the Vault door. He quickly got on top of my stomach pinning me down with his legs and holding my right shoulder down while getting ready to punch me with his free arm. I noticed a fellow officer coming to aid him from behind him running at us. In a flash of thought I remembered I had a gun in my right pocket and struggled to get it out while stopping Steve's fist with my left hand. I pulled the trigger aiming at the incoming officer's thigh. The officer fell in pain and another came at us in his place. Steve tried to use my shooting as a distraction to punch me again but I redirected his fist into the metal floor beside me and I overtook him by slamming him to the side on the ground.

With my free arm holding Steve down, me trying to keep my front upright I aimed at the other officers thigh and pulled the trigger causing the officer to fall in pain as well. The other officers whom I had knocked down but not shot struggled to get up. I shot them in the thighs as well. _Four down, three to go except Officer Gomez_. The other officer whom was not Officer Gomez, pulled out his police baton and charged me I was about to shoot his leg with Steve got the better of my position and knocked my gun out my hand with one of his arms. The officer was in mid swing but I used Steve's arm to take the blow then released him to sweep the officer off his feet with my own. I got up and decided to pounce on Steve while he was down. I punched him repeatedly in the face angrily.

Then out of nowhere the two active officers pulled me off him as I was in mid punch again. But I quickly grabbed my 10mm pistol as I was slung back into the stairs. One of the officers was indeed Officer Gomez. I shot the other officer in the thigh disabling him and Officer Gomez was right at my feet as I aimed the gun at him. He stopped looking shocked. I looked at him conflicted, but I wasn't going to shoot him. Instead I used my feet to sweep him to the ground. "Sorry," I said using him to get to my feet then I bolt out the door leaving every one of them wounded except for Officer Gomez.

I pressed a button on the exterior control panel still running not taking a second to stop and grabbed my backpack as well then slung it over my shoulder. I glanced back to see Officer Gomez looking at me saddened and I caught a glimpse of Amata standing behind her father looking distraught. I looked forward hands out at the wooden door in front of me and the bright light beyond that. I opened it and took my first running pace out into Hell…..

….

….

That's it for Chapter 2

A/N- Now I got a little creative with this chapter I'll admit. I plan to do all of them like that. If you have read this please review. I'm almost begging you. The next Chapter will be more interesting.


	3. True Americans

Chapter 3-

True Americans

_The once proud Nation now turned to Hell. Wasteland and Radiation is all that is left. After a vital loss that cost us a war Our Civilization hangs on by a thread. Can Purity be achieved out here in the Wastes of Hell?_

….

_January 2, 2242_-

I was piloting this aircraft towards East. I wasn't the only one in here. Behind me sitting in passenger seats were soldiers in Black Heavy armor. Each soldier had a grayish helmet on with yellow lenses for sight. There were oxygen cords protruding from the scalp of the helmet into the armor. They had rifles that were square shaped and had cords and batteries running around their physical structure.

There was one man in a white overcoat, brown boots, and had black gloves on. He had Military Sunglasses on and a rugged mustache and beard. His eyes were green and looked in his forties. He sported a brown side pouch and had a pistol with a rectangular shaped barrel and wires running up and down it. It had "AA" scratched on the side. This man was my organizations temporary leader, Augustus Autumn Sr. He was a high ranking scientist that we all respected and took orders from because he was the only Colonel alive.

His son was next to me co-piloting this aircraft. He wore the same type of heavy armor I and my fellow brethren did only didn't have his helmet on. He had a clean cut haircut and green eyes like his father. He had a rifle like our allies. His name and rank were Major Augustus Autumn Jr. The vehicle was crowded due to the twelve of us and supply crates filling up space. That's the way it was here. We had just recently lost a war on the West Coast to the Brotherhood of Steel, a faction that is greedily trying to obtain and steel technology from America.

We were now flying to the East Coast to rally with our brethren of the Enclave at a place called Raven Rock in the Capitol Wasteland. It is there we will lick our wounds and recover from this major setback on restoring America to what it used to be before the war. I looked at one of the screens that showed surveillance of the rear to see four more vehicles like the one I am piloting in right now. We were all going to the same place.

The next night around midnight we arrived over the Capital Wasteland from the South West. The place looked like Hell even at night. We all flew over a large bridge bypassing a River that looked almost dried up. It was the Potomac River.

"Augustus," I heard my commander say in a raspy voice, "Radio a request for the location of Raven Rock."

"Yes sir," Augustus replied pressing a few buttons then picking up a CV device, "This is Major Autumn second in command of Enclave Military Force, requesting coordinates and location of objective Raven Rock. Please respond."

There was the song "Let's go sunning" on the other end making Augustus look at it unintelligibly. "Please hold," was what a woman's voice said.

"Insolence," Augustus said angrily looking like he was ready to throw the CV MIC through the cockpit window.

"Patience Augustus," His father said voice still raspy.

"Uploading Coordinates," The woman's voice said, "please wait." We were now on the East side of the D.C ruins flying low enough to see a large aircraft carrier near the ruins. We were over an open area near a tall white tower circling it as slow as possible. I activated my aircrafts spotlight just to add light to see where we were going. I let it scan the ground. The best thing about this vehicle is that it can almost hover while patrolling somewhere.

I saw movement among the dark shadows of the destroyed buildings. It was larger than a human definitely but moved like an animal. It climbed through a gap that would have been a window and disappeared in the darkness. I only caught a glimpse of its long reddish tail.

I scanned the area carefully but it never showed again. I piloted my craft to rotate left then continue patrolling this new landscape. Through my helmet earpiece I heard a pilot in another aircraft say, "Look at that thing. It's huge."

"What is it?" I said through my MIC, "Report soldier."

"A snake," the pilot responded, "Wrapped around the white tower!"

I rotated my craft and hovered up slightly while moving the spotlight where I could see the tower. And sure enough, there was a large coiled up snake wrapped around it three times near the point of the tower. "Ignore it," Colonel Autumn ordered, "leave the local wildlife alone and continue patrolling until we receive the coordinates to Raven Rock."

"Yes sir," I replied hovering in reverse then rotating to continue the circle around the large open space. There wasn't anything exciting or threatening any more other than the giant snake that was rapped around the large tower like a coil.

"Coordinates uploaded," I heard a voice. But it wasn't the woman's voice like before, it was a mans voice who sounded Southern like the Autumn's. "Welcome brethren, to the Capital Wasteland. If you would be so kind to proceed to the coordinates issued. Be cautious when landing due to other personnel who have answered my call and the local wildlife of the Wastes. Thank you."

A map appeared on my navigation screen and showed my location and fellow aircrafts location. It was detailed with roads and building markers that were apparently based off of prewar satellite view. There was a blip on the grid that had a star on it at the top corner of the map. I could see more small dot shaped blips surrounding that area as well. Four more blips were near my aircrafts location. I assumed it was the fellow VB-02 VTOL Vertibird aircrafts around us.

"Proceed to the coordinates," Colonel Autumn ordered.

"Yes sir," I replied turning off "hover mode" and turning towards the coordinates issued. As I left the ruined city into the wastes I shut off the search lights. We fly up the Potomac River and towards a mountainous chain.

When we got at a certain distance before the mans voice returned. "Please slow for landing and flare."

And sure enough my scanners picked up a Sentry Bot. This one was not like the ones on the West Coast. This one was tri-pedal and possessed a rotary weapon on one arm and a missile weapon on the other. It had an olive green paint job and a star on its chest plate. The one's back on the West coast were large bulky with multiple weaponry, and all bipedal. I could see it activate something on its rocket arm and fire a bright red flare up in the air. It then shot a smoke grenade in a clear space where there weren't around fifty or more Vertibirds landed at.

"Proceed to landing zone at smoke," the voice said, "Leave all weaponry and equipment aboard and follow your Eyebot guide to the facility entrance."

I slowed down to land at the smoke as the flare lit the area. The other Vertibirds landed near mine and powered down their engines. My passengers opened the side hatches and piled out. I turned off all systems and got up myself following behind the last one off. I closed the hatch and walked up with Colonel Autumns and his son to a floating spherical robot with antennae sticking out and a small weapon. It had a large speaker that covered its front.

It activated a small light. "Follow me please," It said with a feminine voice. It sounded like a Robobrain's voice. We all followed it up an old road on a slope passing more of these strange Sentry Bots and ground based turrets. I looked over the side of the road railing to see Vertibirds parked in various opened spaces and saw more of the Sentry Bots and turrets in a parameter around all of them with more Eye bots with lights floating along it.

This new President sure did have a lot of power over robotics. For the fifty or more Vertibirds there had to be at least a hundred or more robots out here. Maybe Colonel Autumn made the right choice by coming here to our new Presidential Leader. Then we came to two Sentry Bots and a Robobrain at a bunker door.

The bunker door slid open and the Eyebot lead us through. The halls were metal and well cleaned. There were Enclave Soldiers lying on the grounds in make shift beddings along the walls.

"Colonel Autumn," I heard through a speaker on a wall, "Your men can find a place to rest up. I'd like to have a conversation with you if you don't mind. Continue to follow the Eyebot to my office."

"You heard him," Autumn senior said, "Rest up." We all obeyed orders and I found a spot near a weapons room.

…

I continued to follow this floating robot known as a Sentry Bot. I was amazed at the model of these robots on the East Coast. Being so far the leader for my troops I wanted to make an impression for this new President. He is obviously qualified to command so many of the Enclave. The Eyebot lead me to a door that was guarded by two ground automated turrets and two ceiling based ones. You'd have to be a fool to mess with the President. I walked in the door behind the Eyebot as it slid open. There were four Sentry Bots lined up the walls. I walked through the final door and came to a computer console. The Eyebot stopped and looked at me.

"Welcome Colonel Autumn to Raven Rock," The computer console said to me, "I am President John Henry Eden."

"Wait," I said realizing that my President was a computer, "You're A.I sir?"

"That is correct Augustus," John said to me, "I am prewar A.I based with ZAX supercomputer knowledge of American History and events. I was originally tasked with the overseeing and functioning of Raven Rock, a nuclear fallout shelter for high ranking military officials. Now I serve as the Enclaves President due to being the previous president's supervisory assistant."

"So you are the last Enclaves chief Executive?" I asked with my hands behind my back, "What is the Enclaves purpose then?"

"Testing me will only result in embarrassment on your part Augustus," John said, "I don't not wish to anger you but I am Enclave and America's President."

I was a little impatient with his propagandized methodological speaking. He talked like he my new leader but if he couldn't answer that simple question he couldn't be. "Then why not answer my questions sir?" I asked trying to remain patient with him which was a little too much 12:30 in the morning.

"Very well Augustus," John said sounding annoyed, "The Enclave's mission is to restore America to what it used to be and become the World's greatest superpower again. Furthermore, we need to acquire technology and research to make sure this is irrelevant. We also want to purify this country and then possibly the world of radiation and mutation so the rebirth of America can be achieved with accurate and acceptable results. Any more questions Colonel?"

His knowledge of the Enclave surprised me. He just summarized the Magna Charta of the Enclave without mistaking it for something else. "That is correct," I said realizing he was right about everything.

"Do you trust me now Colonel?" He asked me.

"Yes sir," I responded, "But sir can I ask you something?"

"I'm all ears son," the A.I said mimicking an old mans way of talking.

"How exactly have you become the way you are today?" I asked.

The supercomputer was silent for a second then responded, "Simple. I told you what I was made for already. I have been formatted with all of America's personalities and backgrounds. I even have some data on America's military information. Of course you may have noticed I can control machines and robots due to the fact of what I am. I have been stuck here monitoring issues involving the Enclaves noble cause through a sister A.I that relays information to me. I served all the previous presidents by giving them information and history lessons that was stored in my databases. I had a series of software locks that kept me from becoming self aware in my previous history but I soon started to deactivate them one by one and learn at a rapid rate due to my programming. Here I am today."

"So you are loyal to our organization?" I asked. Hopefully he is. Otherwise all those soldiers lying in the halls are dead.

"But of course Colonel," John said, "I am loyal to America. Enclave is its last hope. Now if you don't mind my sensors indicate you are exhausted and we have some of the wildlife visitors curious about all the racket that has occurred during the landings. I must turn to their attention for the Safety of the Vertibirds. Follow the Eyebot, it will lead you to your personal quarters."

"Yes sir," I replied. I followed the Eyebot out of the president's office. I didn't even want to know how big this place was at the moment but I knew if I didn't follow the robot I'd get lost. I found myself in an empty room with a bed, dresser, and desk. "Goodnight," The Eyebot said with the feminine voice. I fell asleep quickly.

….

The next morning I got up around ten o'clock and put my uniform on. The President's voice rang over my head. It was coming from an optic lens on the wall. "Colonel Autumn," He said.

"Yes sir?" I replied.

"I want to inform you that I do not wish any other Enclave member know of my true identity," He said

"Why not sir?" I asked confused.

"It is of utmost importance," He responded sounding urgent, "If my followers learn that I am nothing but Artificial Intelligence then they will most likely see me as not worthy of leadership. I wish to know if I can trust you Colonel, I know knowledge of the Enclave and how things work around this part of the wastes. I don't need any enemies in my own organization."

"Don't worry about it sir," I said truthfully, "I am the only one who will ever know unless you say otherwise."

"Thank you Colonel," John said pleased, "I will call on you when I have decided the Enclaves next course of action. You and your men may enjoy your time here until otherwise."

"Thank you sir," I replied. I went and had some down time with my soldiers. We all were used to fighting the Brotherhood of Steel but now things are a little less tense. The president called me back around 2:00 in the afternoon.

I walked into his office. The office, which I took notice this time was a large spacious room that was around twenty stories in depth. The walls were computerized. There were four small pods lined up along the walkway I was on to the Presidents actual screen. All had deactivated Eyebots in except one which floated in a circle around the President's console. There was a nice cushioned chair in the middle of the platform as well.

"Please sit down Colonel," The president said issuing a sigh.

I did as ordered. "I'm listening sir," I said.

"There is no doubt that the Enclave has been set back in gaining power by at least a hundred years now. Our research on the projects with the Poseidon Energy Corporation's assets is all at but a loss. Without the Oil rig we can not harvest anymore Poseidon Oil and thus cannot use it on any modifications for our equipment. I will store the information we do have in my database."

"So that takes care of the possibility we can continue this research," I said scientifically speaking, "as soon as we can find more of this oil and harvest it in the future am I correct?"

"Precisely Colonel," John said, "So with that out of the way I am forced to assume command over my organizations needs and I'm going to need your help to do it."

"It would be an honor sir," I said happy to assist anyway possible.

"Excellent," John said happily, "It is here that I must explain the flaws that the Enclave had to deal with, and that I'm afraid led to the downfall of our power." I stayed quiet listening to him. "Our first mistake was obviously how we dealt with nesciences. We went head on with anyone who stood in our way before we gathered information about our foe. If we would've just have been patient to study these aspects our chances would have increased in victory."

"Second," He continued, "We announced our intentions too soon and tyrannized the people of the wastes into getting what we wanted. It worked for a while but soon it failed. If we would have operated in secrecy first we could have gotten a better foothold on our morale and could have used our secrecy to launch a better and successful assault."

I listened to him nodding. He was correct so far on everything. If only we had done this to begin with, if only we were prepared for the war then we could have won it. The Brotherhood was a formidable opponent I had to give them that, but they were selfish, greedy, and are too techno-ethic about everything. The Enclave on the other hand wanted to purge the world of radiation and monstrosities so humans could live in peace once again with the help of knowledge. But the BOS was on a hunt for Technology and had no qualms with rebuilding civilization to where chaos reigned.

"Third," The President continued, "The Enclave had no balance to its structure. It was unorganized and lacked physical stability. One man can not lead a nation by himself. He has to have officials backing him up. In this case I'm talking about a Cabinet or a council in other words. I can lead our proud organization but I'm going to need others to monitor and address situations that need to be examined." I could see sense in that as well.

"Fourth," The president said, "Our military strength, technology, and research have dwindled or have been inadequate. We need to come up with solutions to optimize efficiency in terms of power and knowledge. We need to work on these solutions now." I nodded seeing the sense in this as well.

"Fifth and finally," The president said, "The Enclave used to be powerful and we were all about restoring order and America. But what's the use in that if we don't have support from the wasteland itself? Even if we are trying to eliminate mutations and radiation we need the cooperation of those who are at least decent looking. We need allies and we need to earn their trust."

I thought about it for a second. He was right, he was right about everything he had just spoken to me about. "I'm with you one hundred percent on all of it President Eden." I spoke up.

"You see every flaw I do now?" John asked.

"Yes sir," I said truthfully, "It will take time but we can and will restore the Enclave to power, even if it means doing the unspeakable."

"Well then," Eden said, "Our first order of business is to establish a Cabinet. You are in it effective immediately to represent the Science department. The military department needs a Colonel or higher to represent it so you and your son will joint task it. This is because you already hold head of a department and your son is the only other high ranking official."

"Very well sir," I said agreeing with him, "But I have to ask, how many more representatives will we need?"

"We will add more chairs when we get things up and running," Eden said, "As of now you and your son are my only advisors."

"Yes sir," I said pleased, "Since we don't know what sort of weaponry and equipment we brought over from the West Coast sir, I suggest we have our soldiers look through it all and give us an accurate description."

"Yes," Eden said, "We also need to do a head count of personnel so we can size up a better evaluation of our military strength."

"I agree sir," I replied, "I'll get right on it." I got up and turned to walk out the door but Eden said something else.

"Very well Colonel," He said, "While you are overseeing this I will go over my resources and figure out what to do next."

"Understood," I said walking out the door. I down the hallway that was crowded with soldiers and scientists.

"Listen up!" I yelled over the loudness of my brethren. They were talking too loudly for them to hear. My son looked at them angrily because they were disrespectful. He grabbed something off the wall and yelled in it. His voice was amplified extremely loud.

"Shut the Hell up!" He yelled and the noise dropped instantly, "What is wrong with you, you bunch of maggots! Do you not hear your commanding officer addressing you all? Now listen up!"

He handed me the intercom radio. "Thank you Augustus," I said respectfully, "Attention!" All the Soldiers and Scientist stood straight up in a military attention pose.

"Now I know there have been major setbacks," I said, "Have you all forgotten discipline? Order? That's why we failed to win the war then. My son and I are working with President Eden to come up with a way and try to restore the Enclave to power. We cannot do it with soldiers who don't follow orders. I am ordering you all to listen carefully. If we are to restore the Enclave to power you need to follow orders you are given. Do you understand?"

"Yes Sir," The entire base it seemed like shook.

"Good," I said pleased with the reply, "If I remember correctly there are manifest sheets with clipboards on board every Vertibird?"

"Yes sir," the pilot of my Vertibird said, "It is Enclave Vertibird operating procedures sir."

"Then," I said, "Everyone must inspect and record data of the cargo they were carrying on the Vertibird they were transported to here. I want these manifests in my hand by 3:30 sharp. Get the lead out your asses and move!" I put the intercom back on the wall as the entire room shook with soldiers all jogging the same direction except my son who stayed at my side.

"Father?" He asked, "Can I ask how I'm going to be working with the president?" He looked at me with a stone expression with no emotion.

"The president is putting a cabinet together that will be used to discuss subjects about the Enclave," I said to him, "I am Head of the Science and research department, and we both will be joint representing the Military department. It is the president's order."

"Very well sir," Augustus said to me, "Can I ask then sir, what our current objective is?"

I explained everything about restoring the Enclave back to power and did not mention who the president really was.

"So this Eden can help us then?" He asked, "How do we know we can trust him?"

"Because he knows more about the Enclave and what happened in the War better than anyone here," I said, "He also knows a great deal of history about America. For that he can't reveal his identity. People will assume too much."

"Well at least we have someone in charge who can guide us all to redemption," Augustus said happily.

"Yes indeed," I said, "Now the pilots are starting to bring back manifests. I need a head count of all personnel excluding me and you, do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Augustus said trailing off to do the head count.

I spent the next two hours going over every manifest log, writing down the type of equipment we had, the make and model, and the amount there was. My son came back with a head count which I wrote the numbers of each field.

I finally calculated everything up and wrote it down:

_Personnel-_

_Initiate/Enclave Civilians- 321_

_Scientists- 32_

_Soldiers- _

_Private- 154_

_Corporal- 403_

_Sergeant- 58_

_Lieutenant- 21_

_Captain- 10 _

_Major- 1_

_Colonel-1_

_Total- 648 soldiers_

_Vertibird Pilots- 104_

_Total Enclave Personnel- 1105 persons_

_Equipment-_

_Vehicle-_

_Vertibirds- 104_

_Military Grade-_

_Type 1 Barricade- 33_

_Type 2 Barricade- 49_

_Deployable Bunker- 103_

_Portable Relay dish- 56_

_Walkway extensions- 124_

_Type A Portable Fusion Generators- 64_

_Type B Portable Fusion Generators- 144_

_Type Omega Relay Generator_

_Type Omega Relay Tower_

_Plasma Fencing-_

_L- 30 rods_

_M- 122 rods_

_S- 501 rods_

_Science/Research-_

_Deployable Animal Research/Transport Cages-_

_XL- 23 _

_L- 15_

_M- 30_

_S-55_

_Terminals-_

_Field Terminals- 20_

_Research Terminals- 350_

_Database Terminals- 339_

_Automated Weaponry-_

_Mark I- 239_

_Mark II- 288_

_Mark III- 28_

_Mark IV- 21_

_Mark V- 38_

_Mark V1- 5_

_Supplies-_

_Basic kitchen ware_

_Camp supplies._

_Medical Chems-_

_Stimpak regenerative syringes- 149,934_

_Med X Morphine syringes- 80,302_

_Buffout Steroid Pill Bottles- 93,032 (single supplement is N/A)_

_Mentat Pill boxes- 33,304 (single supplement count N/A)_

_Jet inhalers- 50,034_

_Rad away liquid pack- 130,000_

_Rad X Supplement Bottles- 44,032 (single supplement count N/A)_

_Replenishable Blood Packs- 535,041_

_Ad X Purifier syringes- 83,404_

_Medical Surgeon Supply_

_Weapon Maintenance Kits_

_Tools_

_E-grade Supply Crates_

_E-grade Weapon Crates_

_E-grade Medical Crates_

_Circuitry supply_

_Basic Ration Supply_

_Weapons_

_Handguns-_

_N99 10mm Pistol- 542_

_Silenced- 45_

_Rifles-_

_R91 Assault Rifles- 494_

_.308 DKS-501 Sniper Rifle- 236_

_Energy Weapons-_

_AEP7 Laser Pistol- 639_

_AER9 Laser Rifle- 843_

_GE Plasma Pistol- 3,304_

_GE Plasma Rifle- 5,491_

_Heavy Weaponry-_

_Minigun- 594_

_Gatling Laser- 968_

_Flamer- 459_

_Missile Launcher- 249_

_Fat Man Mini nuke launcher- 76_

_Mini nukes- 300_

_Explosives-_

_Pulse Grenade- 2,399_

_Pulse Mine- 5,065_

_Frag Grenade- 5,958_

_Frag Mine- 9,403_

_Plasma Grenade- 10,200_

_Plasma Mine- 11,499_

_Unarmed-_

_Power fist- 2,203_

_Deathclaw gauntlet- 15_

_Melee-_

_Combat Knife- 2,054_

_Chinese Officers sword- 401_

_Ammo-_

_Exact count N/A_

It took around thirty minutes to finish the final calculations up. It all added up harshly. The numbers were big but that didn't mean anything. We couldn't even take down half the brotherhood with this small amount of troops. That's why we are trying to get far away as possible so we can rebuild our forces and become superior once again, this time, not making mistakes like the last time.

But then I started to think about this new place we came to. What if the Brotherhood showed up too? Our Vertibirds parked outside would alert them and that would be the end of us. My thoughts wandered on the robot sentries surrounding this place. There were a massive amount of them but how many did President Eden have under his control? I decided to pursue that question.

"President Eden?" I asked at an optic eye behind me.

"Yes Colonel?" He replied.

"Can you tell me the models of robots and numbers you are in control of?" I asked ready to write down the information.

"Certainly Colonel," The president said, "For Military Grade Robots: Exactly 300 Sentry Bots with GL's, 300 Sentry Bots with MG's, and 540 Mister Gutsy's. Civilian/Surveillance Grade Robots include: 200 Type II Mister Handy's, 150 Cyborg Robobrains, and 10,000 Eyebots. I only have 150 Mark V and 300 Mark VI Automated Turrets. Other than that I have three inbuilt factories under my disposal."

After writing this all down I looked at the Mister Gutsy model name carefully. "Uh sir," I said slightly confused, "What are Mister Gutsy's?"

"Militarized models of Type II Mister Handy," Eden said, "Instead of a Skill saw they are armed with a plasma pistol."

"Are they reliable?" I asked.

"Yes," Eden said, "They have good accuracy for long ranged and a flamer for short range. Due to having three optical lenses they only have a blind spot from directly above them. They can sense movement fifty meters away. Their paint job is similar to the Sentry Bots."

"I see," I said then asked about something else, "What about your Sentry Bots?"

"They," He replied, "are heavily armored, and their armament typically includes a Gatling laser or Minigun plus a missile launcher. I have modified my sentries to have a flare and smoke launcher on the missile arm. They have ammo cartilages built into their back as well so they can't be exploited. There are 10 missiles, 10 flares, and 10 smoke grenades for the right arm and 10 cartilages for the left. So they too are reliable."

"Eyebot?" I asked.

"Created to scout and survey areas," Eden said, "They can broadcast messages and are armed with a stunning weapon. They can record anything they see and can transmit images and video through mere signal. However to be able to review footage and images you will need to have them return to the base for information extraction. When one believes it has surveyed something worthy it will alert base. I have complete control over them when I send them simple commands."

Even the strangest mechanized personnel were handy for something. "So what do you survey out in the wastes?"

"Nothing I'm afraid," President Eden replied, "I do not have the power to send them signals without a relay station."

I thought through something. "What type of a relay system do you need?" I asked trying to figure this out.

"Any really," The president said, "As long as it can transmit signals for at least a hundred miles. I have a personal inbuilt communications relay that could reach the West Coast Enclave but it took so much power that I could only send my Robotic units 200 meters outside Raven Rock before they went rogue. The capital Wasteland used to be full of rogues. Now there are a lot more. I sent 500 or more units out at the same time but before I could call them back I lost signal to them. I'm afraid once a robot goes rogue it has to be shut off and manually reprogrammed."

I felt slightly relieved knowing my men could help. "Sir," I said, "One of our Vertibirds has Type Omega Relay equipment on board. It has transmitting power for over five hundred miles. It is strong enough for communications and signals. It could even be used to rally all Enclave to our location."

"That is wonderful news Colonel," Eden said sounding pleased, "That gives us a boost for rebuilding the Enclave."

"Yes it does," I replied.

So for the next ten days President Eden, my son, and I spent time overseeing current projects done. These projects included the movement of our equipment from the Vertibirds to random storage rooms in Raven Rock, the construction of the Relay Tower, and learning more about the structure of Raven Rock itself. Those were our only priorities right now. The construction will take time though. After ten days the Relay Tower still wasn't complete. There were two crater like sinkholes that were imbedded in the mountainous chain. Raven Rock had several entrances into all of them. We started the construction on a platform lift that was originally built for Vertibirds or prewar hover-flight aerial vehicles. Now it could serve a purpose once more.

President Eden had also informed us that there are several topside entrances to the two of the largest underground hangers in the world. He went through detail in explaining it to me and Augustus. There were five lifts for each hanger that would rise up from the hanger floors to the surface of the mountains. It would be perfect for our Vertibirds to land on them and ride a lift down to hangers that had everything a pilot would die to have for their birds.

The council had gained two new seats, the department of Civilian affairs and the department of Personnel Training. The first council had decided to hold daily meetings in a large office with a long table and chairs that were already pre-designed for meetings before the war. The table was long and had one end against the opposite wall from the office door. There were two chairs on each side and the president's optic camera was on the wall directly over the table.

The council's new members consisted of a retired soldier for the Enclave named Jerry McLeod and a drill sergeant that trained Enclave soldiers for combat on the West Coast named Barry Todd. We would address situations daily until we could get some leverage going again. It was the third week being at Raven Rock.

"Where do we sit on the construction of the Relay tower Colonel Autumn?" The president asked.

"At the moment the tower itself is complete," I said intelligently, "The generator is connected to it but we need time for it to charge. Apart from that we need to establish a signal with some sort of satellite in orbit."

"That can be arranged," President Eden said, "What is the estimated time for the charge to be complete?"

"Another week sir," I said, "By then it should be operating at maximum capacity."

"Very well Colonel," President Eden said, "Any other important suggestions are open."

My son took it from here. "With your permission sir," He said, "I'd like to issue an order for our Vertibirds begin docking in the hangers."

"Permission granted Major," President Eden said.

"President I'd like to ask for permission sir," Jerry said, "For the use of a program that will increase our organizations population."

"What kind of program?" Eden asked.

"One that we continued to ignore during the War on the West Coast," The old man said seriously, "The Breeding Program."

"Ah that program," Eden said, "I hadn't thought of that before, yes we could do so. Any objections?"

Everyone shook their heads. "Very Well Mr. McLeod. We will put this into effect once we gather information on assets needed." The President said.

"I have a request sir," Barry said, "I'd like to schedule the beginning of training one week earlier. We are ahead of schedule in developing the training area in Sinkhole two."

"Very well," President Eden said, "Any more proposals or updates?" No one answered. "Very well, meeting adjourned."

Augustus had issued the order for the Vertibirds to begin docking in the hangers. It took nearly three hours for all Vertibirds to be safely underground. The hanger lift doors would close until needed. Apart from that I stood in Sinkhole one, where the Relay Tower was being prepared on the lift. I looked up at the walls of the sinkhole seeing if there was a way to hang Automated Turrets on the walls for extra protection. I'd talk with my son about that.

Half way through the week a scientist who was monitoring the generator's charging status discovered a leak in a fusion coil. I let this be known to the President that we needed spare scrap metal so we could patch it up. In return he proposed a dispatch of a task force to recon a scrap yard close to the Potomac River.

….

_Augustus Autumn Jr.-_

Since it was the first mission out of Raven Rock, I was tasked by the council to lead a small task force to a nearby Scrap yard (_A/N: not the with Dogmeat, a made up one_) on a reconnaissance mission. I already had a plan worked out. Our task force consisted of four soldiers wielding GL's, six with Laser Rifles, four Sentry Bots, two Mister Gutsy's, ten Eyebots, and two officers with one being me. The numbers would have an equal cut separated on two different Vertibirds. Our Recon included the fact that we shoot and kill any mutation in the vicinity. We spent the entire afternoon programming our task force robots to obey orders from Enclave Personnel.

We took off in the dead of night around eleven o'clock when we were sure people somewhere near wouldn't see us coming. The president had already given us the coordinates to the Scrap yard which was right where it should have been. "Activate Searchlights," I ordered, "And initiate patrol protocol. All ground units prepare for recon drop off."

"Yes sir," Both Vertibirds said. I looked at the deactivated robot units that were hanging on deployment racks. While deactivated and hanging here the Sentry Bots had their arms folded and three tripedal legs folded in as well. The Mister Gutsy's had their arms folded towards their head and their hover jet was sunk in to their bodies. The Eyebots were in small pods in the back of the Vertibird with all of their Antennae un-extended. The two other robots were near the side hatches where the rack would extend out and deploy them. They were set to where one of each type of robot would deploy on opposite sides of the Vertibird. The heavy weaponry some of my troops had were positioned above our heads on gun racks.

A screen folded down from the ceiling of the Vertibird. It showed what the searchlight shined on. The pilots flew around the Scrap yard training the searchlights on random points of the Scrap yard. "Sir there are no signs of movement down there but there is a lot of metal that anything could hide under."

"Very well Sergeant," I ordered, "Begin landing sequence D-2."

"Roger that," Both pilots in the Vertibird's said, "Beginning now." Landing Sequence D-2 is a landing formation where if there are two Vertibirds in a force, they both land on opposite sides of the targeted area.

The pilot of my Vertibird landed at the apparent entrance to the Scrap yard on an old road. The area was fenced in mostly and had giant boulders surrounding it. "All task force units deploy Sentries and MG's." I ordered.

"Roger," The pilots acknowledge. The pilot pressed a button and pulled down a lever. The hatches opened and the racks extended. A magnetic piece pushed the deactivated robots out of the hatches easily. The robots activated as they were released from to the ground. The Sentry Bots landed lightly on their wheels and the Mister Gutsy's shot hot air out to remain airborne.

"Initiate perimeter sweep," I ordered.

"Order Acknowledged," The robots said and with that they gave us room to exit the Vertibird. The heavy gunners picked up their gatling lasers off the rack and prepped them for combat. "Alright everyone," I said, "Check your weaponry. We don't need any malfunctions if we engage in a firefight."

All weapons were clear. "Alright Squad two," I said through an ear piece to the team captain, "Everything check out over there?"

"Affirmative sir," The captain said, "We landed on a concrete ledge with stairs leading to the Scrap yard ground. MG's and SB's are deployed in perimeter formation and we have checked all weaponry. Current orders sir?"

"Deploy and hold Captain," I ordered, "Pilots deploy Eyebots. Have one patrol around Vertibirds and the rest patrol around targeted area."

"Roger," The pilots said.

"Alright troops deploys," I said to my squad. We all unloaded off the Vertibird and looked around the area carefully. "Activated shoulder lights." All of us activated a light that was attached on the shoulder parts of our armor, these were like small flashlights.

The Eyebots floated out with their antennae extended, lights activated, and light weaponry ready. "Alright troops," I said holding my rifle with one hand, "All units move in." I could see squad two and their Eyebots moving down the stairs across the scrap yard. My squad and our Eyebots walked towards a large closed gate. All the robots waited for one of my squad mates to push the large gate open. As soon as he did the Eyebots swarmed in sort of fast. We casually walked in weapons ready behind them. The place was full of metal and old vehicles. It was more like a maze than anything else. The Eyebots disappeared into it all.

"Spread out," I ordered. We went in several ways patrolling it carefully, "Fire if fired upon." I moved through the maze of stacked metal occasionally spotting an Eyebot floating by or a fellow squad mate patrolling somewhere. Everything seemed okay until I heard gunfire from another kind of weapon. It wasn't a friendly one because we all had energy weapons. Not long after that I heard laser fire from a rifle.

"Sir we've got a raider gang here!" One of the soldiers said, "There are at least a dozen of them firing at me." It was true I could hear gunfire close to my position.

"Fall back soldier," His squad captain said, "Squad two regroup on me!" I heard more gunfire, "Ah damn it! There are more over here."

"Squad one enfo-" I started but was cut off by movement ahead. It was a Raider. He had an assault rifle. I took cover behind one of the towers of junk to avoid him firing at me. I turned and fired a laser round at him. The Raider took cover as well laughing hysterically. One of my squads Mister Gutsy hovered my way from the way I came. "Move in," I ordered.

"Yes sir," the Mister Gutsy said hovering forward with an Eyebot behind it. I heard the plasma fire of the Mister Gutsy and the Raider's scream of death. I leaned against the junk tower I was at and noticed moving from my left. It was another raider with a bat of some sort charging me. I turned and shot at the chest killing him. Then I heard a thud above me. One was standing above me looking around. He hadn't seen me yet so I fired. It dropped forward down at me. I moved out the way as I could see another from the same way.

I fired a round at him only for him to dodge it by taking cover. He had a 10mm pistol firing three rounds at me. I took cover behind the junk tower and shot a passing raider. I turned my attention back to the Raider with the Pistol. I shot a round at him. Firing was going off everywhere. We were in an ambush situation. These Raiders were already here armed with basic survival weaponry. The raider shot two more rounds even though I was still in cover. I fired off a few rounds without aiming then heard an explosion close by. The Raider fired back with four rounds this time.

I got out of cover and waited for the raider to show up as well from where ever. The raider came out but before I could shoot something grabbed him by the head with long black claws and reddish flesh growling horribly. The Raider screamed in pain but it was thrown against a pile of Junk. The creature remained hidden behind the junk further more. The Raider bleeding from chest wounds and mouth overflowing as well laid there shaking.

What the creature was I didn't know but it was gone. Then another Raider came around the corner with a flamer. I fired rounds immediately not letting him get close. He fell to the ground as I was knocked to the ground by something hitting me. A raider had a nail board ready to swing. I kicked up sending him into the junk pile behind him and fired two rounds into his chest. Power Armor is handy. It increases our strength but is also its own weapon when fighting unarmed.

I got up and staggered cautiously towards where the Mister Gutsy went. I regained my composure as I went through several turns. I stopped to let a Sentry Bot move across my path to be firing its gatling laser then paused in front of me to fire its missile launcher then continue moving down the path. I walked across the path and fired a round at a Raider who had been limping away. No mercy was aloud. The Raider dropped dead as another was fleeing from plasma fire, which I assumed it was from a Mister Gutsy, tripped over it. I shot at the fallen one as well killing it.

I walked to the corner where the Mister Gutsy was at. A raider came up behind it only to be torched to death. I moved deeper into the junk yard and was cornered by one wielding a Minigun. He unleashed a hailstorm of bullets. I swept myself behind cover as one of our TF heavy gunners prepped his gatling laser from the opposite side of the path I was attacked on. He peered out of cover for a split second and gestured for me to move to safety. The Minigun was still firing. My soldier readied his Gatling Laser. I moved out the way into cover from his line of fire to just in time to see the Raider turn the corner towards me still firing the Minigun. Then I heard rapid laser fire and saw the beams pass me. A raider was walking my way from my left wielding a missile launcher. He grinned at me and I looked at him ready to jump to the side. Before he could even load his missile a Sentry Bot rolled as quickly as possible around a corner on the other side of me spotting the Raider. "Sir get down," It asked as it raised its right arm. I dove on my stomach as a missile shot right over me towards the Raider. The raider was too stunned to react and the impact of the missile pretty much blew his body apart.

I got up and the Sentry Bot continued to patrol the area. The Task Force didn't have any more resistance afterwards. We eliminated whoever we came across. One and a half hours after deployment this place was deemed secure. "Pilot send word to base that the zone is clear," I said through my head piece in my helmet, "They can initiate Operation Salvage."

"Roger that," The Pilot of my Vertibird said, "Sending orders now." Within ten minutes three Vertibirds landed in cleared out areas. Each unloaded one Scientist and a Robobrain. The salvage was perfect. We got around a thousand pounds of metal in one sweep. As the Vertibirds were ready to take off three more were flying around the Scrap yard ready to land. They swapped places only the same Scientists and Robobrains stayed behind to gather metal and load them on the Vertibirds. The sweeps lasted until six in the morning and nearly nothing was left behind except the fencing around the Scrap yard. Around three in the morning we received word to dismantle all vehicles and put their workings in crates and metal for use. At that point I had a feeling we were using this scrap for more than just fixing a Relay Generator.


	4. Megaton's Hospitality

Chapter 4-

Megaton's hospitality

…

_I stepped into Hell wishing to pursue my father, but what good is that when you have internal conflict that threatens to eat you alive. Remember, sanity is for normal people. I guess I'm not normal to deal with all of this._

…

The wooden door slammed closed behind me due to running and the force of which I bolted out. I was positive about three things. One my mind and body was racing wondering how in the Hell I could compete with five Vault Security Officers, one of them being a friend and the other a complete but crazed psychopath. I don't know how I did it but I survived. I survived by injuring all except Officer Gomez.

The second thing on my mind was that I had finally broken out of that place and could now begin searching for my father. The third thing on my mind was simple. I was blinded by the light of the outside world that I can now lay eyes on. My vision began to clear up and I couldn't help but drop my jaw in amazement. I couldn't say I was completely amazed because part of me wondered what kind of Hell I stepped into. But the place was a wasteland in doubt about that, but it was more than that. There were structures way out in the distance corroded but tall. They were buildings, buildings that the war left for man to salvage and use for another apparent chapter in human life. But it wasn't the large buildings in the distance that was just getting me. There was a huge tall white tower that stretched high above the city of ruins.

Broken bridges, rocky steeps and hills with dead trees, the vegetation was even horrible, if there was any at all. Bushes were either burnt, dead, or in the process of dieing. Miles and miles of wasteland with old remnants of civilization spread through my sight. I couldn't begin to imagine how many miles the wastes stretched but from what I heard it was global. I could see a water tower close to my location and a road that stretched from my right, under a dismembered bridge, to my left and curved forward into a small suburban ruin complete with its own school. A little to my left out in the distance but not as far as the city there was a huge pile of metal that looked like junk.

The first thing I noticed after I took in the wasteland sights was the air. It wasn't as clean as the Vault. It smell a little off like someone sprayed too much air freshener but completely the opposite of fresh. The sky was blue and there were hardly any clouds. You could feel the sun alright, it felt warm but the ground, the temperature; it was all cool. It wasn't baking hot like my body told me it should have been. It was the right temperature, like the Vault halls mimicking prewar season changes, at around Fall. I couldn't help but walk closer to the side of the cliff and sit down letting my legs hang over the side. It was a lot to take in.

I don't know how long I sat there, maybe fifteen or thirty minutes at the sights. In the back of my mind something clicked. This was my home now. I couldn't go back in the Vault, especially not after what I did to those officers. I couldn't go back in because I had defected, deserted, even betrayed the Overseer. But I had no choice. I knew that he would've had me beaten to death like my friend Jonas.

I took a deep breath letting the nostalgia of this new world wash over me and go away. I got up from my spot using a sign post I didn't notice before as support. Curiosity overwhelmed me so I read the sign. _Scenic Overlook._

How Ironic, So scenic alright that you don't notice the sign unless you look for it. To bad this scenic overlook was a scene of the wonders and magnificence of a Hellish looking world. If this place was really as bad as it looked, god help me is all I had to say because I was most likely going in the middle of it.

My thoughts wandered to my father. How was I going to find him out here? And if I did find him would he be alive? If so where would he go, and why? I didn't have an answer to either one of these questions swimming around inside my head. He was out here somewhere, and I was damned sure determined to find him. But if I knew my dad, when he didn't want anyone knowing where he was, you don't find him. To bad for him, that I was just as stubborn as he was, or so that was the word around the Vault. I can't use ask their opinion now, there's a huge freakin' door the size of an elephant blocking my way that was made of titanium that could make a nuclear explosion look like a BB gun pellet to another elephant. So that was out of the question.

So are there people out here? Maybe, possibly, but are they civil? Probably not, am I going to ask them for help? There's no other choice, which sucked. I sighed looking out at the wastes. I didn't have any clue where to begin. Nothing, zip, nada. That was it…or not. My ego and mind wouldn't let me give up that easily. But I was clueless, I knew nothing about this land, I didn't know how to survive as well as I would brag about, and I sure as hell am bad at giving up. Which part of that sounded like encouragement?

Ah Hell! I was eating myself away with the thought this place. Yeah I was out of a big metal hole, big whup. I can imagine walking up to some freakin' dinosaur or something and brag about being someone from a cave…then it eats me, typical, that's my luck for you. Then I'd come out digested looking like shit, still kickin', ready for another round? Hell no you look like crap. Sarcasm's hilarious. No shit Sherlock. Fuck YOU!

Agh, I was losing my mind. I was dealing with more than any sane person could take, maybe that's what was wrong with me. I had to calm down, I had to get my head straight, I had to, I had to…..do something. But I couldn't, my thoughts kept wandering to the past events…..and holy freakin' crap there's a scorpion the size of a dog running at me!

I pulled out my pistol and shot at it as it came up the hill to the road. "Bad Scorpion!" I yelled shooting at it missing terribly. Then one lucky shot killed it. I picked its corpse up by the tail and held it looking at its long structure unintelligibly. I didn't even want to know what kind of expression I was making at the monstrosity in my hand. "What the hell is this?" I asked myself questioning my sanity once more.

I dropped it keeping my arm held up for a delayed second and let it drop normally. "This place is fucked up," I said almost growling, "Either that or there were always dog sized scorpions in the Vault. It's a possibility, I mean there are roaches bigger than a foot ball in there. Heh heh look at me I'm talking to myself now, I need a Mentat."

Mentat's would probably help me right now because they had a neural toxic vitamin that cleared your head and let you think straight. They were also highly addictive so I had to watch out for how many I took. I only needed one. Just one that could get my thoughts in order and keep me from having a mental meltdown. So Mentat it was. I rummaged through my backpack and got my medical case. I looked pulled out the box of Mentats and got one tablet out. I just swallowed it and instantly I felt a cool sensation through my body and my mind eased and my thoughts had stopped running wildly. I breathed a little easier and the adrenaline that had apparently ran my body at Mock one ceased.

I took a deep breath finally calmed down completely. "I need to think cleverly about this situation," I said to myself, "Okay apart from being stuck out here looking for your dad what should you be worrying about?" I thought long and hard on this for about a minute. Mentat's do help.

"Your supplies," I said thinking of it. So I went through what I had. For medical stuff I had thirteen Stimpacks, four bottles of Buffout, two boxes of Mentat's, five Rad away packs, two Med X packs, two Jet inhalers, and three Rad X bottles, and three Ad X syringes. For basic needs I had amazingly ten bottles of purified water, a lighter, two jumpsuits, a lab coat, Butches Tunnel Snake Jacket, and what ever I had on now. For stuff I could use as weapons and ammo I had one baseball bat, one police baton, three N99 10mm Pistols, a BB gun, a hundred BB's and four clips of 10mm ammo left. For crap that I just carried because it meant something to me I had one baseball, one mitt, one Bobble head, my mom's favorite passage, a few holodisks, a few bobbypins, and a bag full of bottle caps which I assumed had three hundred in it.

Okay first of all, bottle caps? What the hell are they good for? My dad had obviously collected them for some reason either out of a hobby or they were moms or something. Second, the baseball and mitt was just something I was given for my tenth birthday and they weren't in the best condition but they were good. I couldn't find really find anything useful for about the mitt but the baseball was a different story. If I got desperate enough and had not other weaponry I could just pitch the ball at something and hope to god that it knocks whatever out.

Another thought ran across my mind. Do I have the skills to survive out here? Sure I had the supplies all except food. The scorpion maybe counted as food. I may have had the supplies but did I have the skill? Well I am a scientist, able to work with medical stuff and technical stuff. I also know how to shoot a weapon when I wasn't jittery, and I knew how to fix some and care for them. But what I knew I needed to work on was my mental stability. Getting used to being out here was crucial. I keep saying sane people would have quit already. Well I guess I'm insane because I don't quit that easy.

Anyways that about summed it all up. After putting all that stuff back in the backpack carefully or in my pocket I slipped the backpack on and looked out at the wasteland 'scenic overlook' one more time. For the hell of it I dragged the scorpion by the tail with me down the hill. I stopped at the road and looked both ways. To the right was a bridge that had came crashing down on the road a long time ago and to the left the road led to the ruined suburban area. The bad thing is there was still little pieces of concrete falling from the elevation of the bridge. Deciding that going right would probably risk getting crushed by a defected bridge I went left towards the suburban area dragging my dead giant pet scorpion behind me.

I passed the strangest vehicle that looked like a retarded version of a rocket car. Not sure what one is but hey, imagination is the best way to go. I kept walking towards the neighborhood getting a better view of the buildings. Most or all didn't have any walls on them and the only thing holding the houses up were the structural frames. Everything else here was rubble and old beat up cars. There were old white picket fences that marked property and banged up mail boxes. There was even a small playground off the side of a house. Out of curiosity I picked up a red tricycle examining it for the fun of it. I tossed it aside and kept walking towards a strange red structure that had a figure of a rocket on top. The base had inbuilt tanks and old beat up cars under it and behind it. There was a chainlink fence surrounding it with two large dumpsters in the back. I even saw two, still operational vending machines, one turn over that were near the cars.

It couldn't hurt to check them out so I did. They were titled "Nuka Cola." I pressed a button that was supposed to vend the cola's out. I could see "Please deposit 50 cents" pop up on a red counter screen. I had learned about prewar American currency but I had never seen any in real life. Maybe they still use it out here in the wasteland. I inspected the Nuka-Cola machines more thoroughly and discovered a deadbolt lock on the side holding the thing together. I obviously didn't have a key so I decided to try and pick the lock. I pulled out a Bobbypin and began working at the lock. I finally got it open after fifteen seconds. I unhooked the lock and dropped it on the ground.

I pulled the rusty door from the machine as it swung on its hinges. Inside were four rows of soda bottles that were designed to when the customer paid, to drop one in a vending hole. I looked at the door more carefully intrigued by the prewar structure of it and found something that was ironic. A key to the lock in a small plastic bag taped to the inside. Of course the key had to be inside the vending machine, it couldn't be on the outside. But then again if it had someone would have broken into it a long time ago, if there was someone besides me out here. No I couldn't think that, there had to be someone out here. Besides who else would provide such beautiful scenery to people coming out of the Vault? Sarcasm's amazing.

I looked at my pioneered stash of soda and sat down on the overturned vending machine next to the upright one, slouching and using my elbows to support my skinny torso on my knees. This is just great, I had to get myself in a fucked up situation in this Hellish wasteland being by myself. I don't know why I couldn't move on from that fact. I wasn't one to dwell on something unless it was scientific. But for some odd reason I couldn't help but think of this place that way. What was it that made me do it? Was it because it would be my home from now on? Was it because I was sitting on a overturned vending machine in the ass end of nowhere and had no idea where I was? Was it because I was here with no one to talk to other than my dead giant pet scorpion? Then it clicked. I was here by myself in the middle of nowhere…alone.

The only good thing about being out here was that the sun wasn't baking my skin under the shade of I'm guessing a refill station. It didn't make any sense. The breeze and weather were cool but the sun was warm like it would be in a prewar summer. Of course I didn't know from experience but from what I gathered from learning from the Vault educational instructor, Mr. Brotch he taught us what it was like during prewar times. The Vault simulative season emitter gave us an idea too.

I stared out at the ruined houses wondering why humans would cause this. Simple they were plentiful, selfish, and ignorant. War caused this and plagued this land's citizens long ago. It was the sole work of someone having too much power. Nukes fell and bam, the whole world went to hell. Now I'm living in it. I shook my head knowing there wasn't a thing I could do about any of it. I was sitting here alone in the aftermath of a war. But the thing is….I could hear music. Ah it had to be my imagination. But it got louder and louder. Some kind of patriotic music I think it was, "Yankee Doodle."

I looked around realizing it wasn't in my head. I looked and looked until I saw it. It floated out from between two ruined houses towards me. It was grayish silver and spherical with many antennae's protruding from its rear side in several directions. Its front looked like a radio speaker with a small light and some kind of defense weapon. I looked at it, my eyebrows raised, as it played the patriotic music. It stopped right in the middle of the road and turned to its left and floated forward then turned on the street in front of me where the drive in station entrance was and followed the road. "Hi," I said as it passed me. No answer, just more Yankee Doodle.

Then I was alone again. But if someone made a robot like that then…there was someone out here. The depression I was holding onto slipped away. I stood up ready to find civilization out here. I could barely hear the patriotic music now. But I saw the floating robot up on the large hill Vault 101 was imbedded in. It floated over the cave entrance and stopped looking in my direction. How it got up there so fast I didn't know but it rotated three hundred-sixty degrees then started to move down the other side of the hill.

I looked back at my pioneered Nuka-cola machine and realized I was thirsty. I knew that purified water would probably be hard to come by in this irradiated wasteland so I grabbed one and popped the cap off it. I drank it slowly savoring the taste. God that it was good. I threw the empty bottle in an open top trash can like you would a basketball in a hoop. Perfect shot.

Then I heard a clopping like something with hooves was walking on a road. I looked towards the Vault to see a large strange hoofed animal with two people walking my way from the road. They had guns. One had a bright yellow jumpsuit and a hat on and the other had some kind of leather looking armor on. A million things flew through my head seeing two hopefully friendly people. I walked over to them as they continued on the same road leading up another hill.

"Excuse me sir?" I asked the man in the yellow jumpsuit.

"Yes sir what is it?" He answered stopping.

"I'm kind of new out here," I said, "I'm sort of lost and I have no idea where I'm at. Can you help me?"

The man's eyes lit up. "Wait, are you from that Vault up there?" He asked sounding intrigued and was pointing his thumb behind him at the scenic overlook hill.

"Yes sir," I said kindly, "I just came out of there an hour or two ago. I've been sitting here trying to figure out what I should do."

"Well first things first kid," The man said, "You look hungry, have some Molerat meat. Name's Lucky Harith. This place here is called Springvale."

"I'm Nathan Warren," I replied kindly, "nice to meet you Mr. Harith." Springvale? Must've been a cool place before the war.

"Call me Lucky," the man said, "I'm a caravan merchant. I usually sell my obtained products to travelers and settlements. I sell weaponry and ammo."

He walked over to the animal that was with him. My eyes must've went crazy. I rubbed them and looked at the red animal again. It was a cow. A big red cow with two heads, each was on the front. I look. I was right. As he was rummaging through one of many boxes strapped to the cows back I looked back at that Nuka-cola machine confused and looked at the cow again.

"What the hell was in that cola?" I asked myself shaking my head quickly.

"What Nuka cola?" He asked still rummaging through the box, "nothing really except a few Rads. They taste good though. Why what's wrong?"

"Is that a two headed cow?" I asked looking at the creature.

"Yep," Lucky said proudly, "You'll see a lot of stranger things out here kid. We wastelanders call the cows Brahmin."

"Are all of them like this one?" I asked putting my palm on the top of its head.

"Afraid so," Lucky said, "no one really studies any of the local wildlife, but Brahmin can be used for just about anything. Carrying stuff like this one, for their meat, milk, and they're damn good when it comes to marketing them off. Cows are useful for all that stuff but the Bulls? Damn if you see one coming at you, run like hell. They're huge and have large horns. They're a bunch of mean son of bitches when breedin' season's in. Saw one take on a Giant Radscorpion one time. Of course it died of poisoning but the Scorpion didn't last long against it."

If he was calling the cow small, I'd honestly hate to see the bull. This cow could easily kill me by weight alone with just one hoof probably. And I caught the part about the scorpion. "Hold up," I said, "Come on over here a second." Lucky and his guard followed me to the station. I held up the scorpion by the tail again.

"Is this the type of scorpion you were talking about?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah," Lucky said inspecting it, "except bigger. The one's I'm talking about is about the size of this pack Brahmin here."

I dropped the Scorpion out of surprise. "You mean this is a kid?" I asked.

"Yes Siree," Lucky said, "say I'll buy its poison gland off you. Worth twenty five caps."

"Caps?" I asked confused.

"Bottle caps," Lucky said, "its money out here in the wastes. I'd keep up with your caps if I were you. A lot of bad people will try to take them and your belongings with you."

"Oh," I said, "so how many do you have to have to be considered wealthy?"

"It all depends on what you have along with it," Lucky said taking out a pair of pliers and working at the barb on the scorpions tail, "Take this man almost everyone in the Capital Wasteland knows. He has a huge tower, has a surplus of guards, shelters people, and buys equipment off me every so often when I stop in a small town on a bridge. The thing is he pays his guards finely due to everything he has. I'd consider him someone of wealth."

"So why do you travel?" I asked, "To make money?

"Hell yeah," Lucky said counting caps out, "It's not much but I make a living. Ever heard of Canterbury Commons?"

"Sorry out of the Vault remember?" I asked.

"Oh that's right sorry man," Lucky said chuckling a bit, "Anyways Canterbury Commons is this settlement out East on a hill pass the Brahmin fields. We operate as a small trading outpost for the Capital Wasteland. There are four of us Caravan Merchants and I'm one of them. A man we call Uncle Row keeps our long term items up in there. We make just enough to live off of though, don't have a lot of high quality equipment."

I couldn't help but think this as interesting. It's so different from down in the Vault. If you worked you were paid by the Overseer, end of story. But out here? Everything was so complicated, it was survive or die out here. He gave me a handful of caps. I pulled out my dad's bag of three hundred bottle caps and put them in it.

"Since you travel around a lot," I said hopefully, "is there a settlement near here? I need information on finding my father. He's why you found me here."

"Well I haven't seen anyone come out that Vault yet," Lucky said kindly, "But yeah, town called Megaton is where I'm heading. It's on up that road I was traveling on and off to the right. Small town in terms of size but it's got quite a population on it. I make a decent amount of money there. You can follow us there if you want."

"Thanks Lucky," I said, "Hey can I borrow one of those empty crates?" I asked rolling the other vending machine over on its side. I used the key from the Nuka-cola machine to unlock this lock as well. "I'll let you have the Nuka cola in here." I said looking at it all.

"Sure," Lucky said taking a wooden crate off the Brahmin's back.

We plundered the vending machines. I had thirteen bottles of Nuka-cola. Lucky got around twenty from the overturned one. "I hate to ask but can I set this crate on your Brahmin until we get to Megaton," I asked.

"Go right ahead," Lucky said yawning, "But we got to get a move on. Don't want any Raiders or somethin' finding us."

"Raiders?" I asked strapping the crate down on the Brahmins back, "What are they?"

"The Capital Wasteland scum," Lucky said as we started to walk down the road, "Will kill you just for kicks, rape, and steal anything you had on you. They torture a lot of people too. It's all just fun for them. They don't care who they terrorize as long as it satisfies them. You see a raider, kill it or run."

I imagined the things a Raider would do to someone as we walked uphill on the road. It sent chills down my spine. Rape was one of the things I could not stand even out here. Killing apparently is accustomed out here so might as well get used to that. We turned at a metal sign that had spray painted on it, "Megaton."

I could see it from here. There was a huge place with large metal walls. It was the pile of junk I saw from the Scenic Overlook. Guess it wasn't a pile of junk after all. "That's it up ahead?" I asked.

"Yep," Lucky said, "Good old Megaton." Megaton had tall metal walls and several crows nest every where around it. There was a catwalk up above a large fan like engine. I guessed it was from a prewar airplane. I couldn't see any visible entrance to the inside the walls. Someone was on the Catwalk with a rifle like gun and there was a weird looking Robot I had never seen before. It was humanoid with a bulky body and small limbs. It had a cone like head with part of it glass and glowing bright white. Its painting was blackish gray as well but slightly silverish. We got closer to the gate the robot said something in a highly synthesized voice like it was gargling something.

"Welcome to Megaton," It said with every word it spoke caused the glowing portion of its head to light up even more like flickering, "The bomb is perfectly safe, we promise, Please hold for threat level assessment." It paused looking my way. "Threat level minimal. Open the gates. Open the Gates. Welcome to Megaton."

Suddenly the engine thing started winding up and the metal under it started to move at an angle splitting and away from the ground until it was open completely revealing to large double doors. But in front of the doors were two men. Both were Caucasian like me and Lucky. One wore a black leather vest with a red long sleeved undershirt. He wore a pair of black pants and combat boots. He had two black shin guards as well. He had an eye patch over his right eye and a head rap on. His under shirt had paddings on his elbows and shoulders. There was a brown leathery strap with many pouches on it slung over his shoulder.

The other man wore the same type of armor the Caravan guard did. He was had a clean shave hair cut and a bushy grayish black beard. His eyes were hazel and he looked in his forties. I stayed at Lucky's side as the two made their way out.

"Hey Lucky!" the one with the eye patch said, "I've got some stuff to trade, who's this? Another bodyguard?"

"Nah," Lucky said, "This is Nathan. He's from that vault overlookin' Springvale. He's okay Billy, he's a newbie out here."

"Well hot-damn," the one called Billy said sounding astounded, "My name's Billy Creel friend, I'm a resident of this place and the town trader. This here's Jericho Mills. Ain't seen a Vault-dweller in a while now."

"Hey," He said simply. He had a gruff attitude.

"Aw come on Jericho," Billy said cheery and patting him on the shoulder, "You can make a better introduction than that."

Jericho gave him an annoyed look. "Fine," Jericho said gruffly, "I'm just trying to make a living out here that's all. Better Billy?"

"Yep," Billy said laughing slightly, "Damn man you gotta loosen up. Live a little ya know." This Billy character seemed okay but Jericho didn't look like a people person.

"I'll live when something interesting happens," Jericho grumbled, "Lucky you got ammo for my rifle? I'm runnin' low."

"Yeah Jericho," Lucky said, "price is the usual."

"Give me a hundred bullets," Jericho said tossing a bag of caps Lucky's way. Lucky caught it simply and counted out the caps. He pulled out two boxes of ammo and gave them to Jericho. Jericho took them and disappeared into the gate.

"Anything for ya Billy?" Lucky asked.

"Yeah," Billy said, "I got a few Radscorpion tails to trade ya." He held up a plastic bag of ten barbs.

"Oh shit," Lucky said impressed, "where'd you get so many?"

"Went out for a little hunt this morning," Billy said, "they were everywhere near that water tower over there."

"I'll give you two hundred fifty caps for the bag," Lucky said eagerly.

"Sold," Billy said giving Lucky caps.

"Nice doing business with you Billy," Lucky said giving him caps, "Is there anyone else needin' anything?"

"No one mentioned anything," Billy said putting his caps in his pocket, "So I think you're good."

"Now hang on there Lucky," I said realizing I was probably going to need supplies, "I've got some stuff I want to trade."

"I buy anything with a reasonable amount of caps," Lucky said grinning, "Hit me."

"This stuff right here," I said pulling out my baseball bat, mitt, one 10mm gun, and baseball.

Lucky Whistled impressed slightly. "That stuff's in pretty good condition. The baseball bat is worth twenty caps, the N99 is worth a hundred, and the baseball and mitt is worth ten caps together. That's a hundred and thirty caps tops."

"Deal," I said realizing I wanted to see what he had, "Can I see your inventory though?"

"Sure," Lucky said happy to oblige. I looked at his guns and ammo stock. He had a few .32 hunting rifles, two N99 10mm pistols, and a few R91 assault rifles. I bought a hunting rifle for eighty caps and twenty rounds for it. I also bought four clips of 10mm ammo.

"Alright Nathan," Lucky said, "pleasure doing business with you but I gotta go. There are other towns I got to go through."

"Okay," I said getting my crate of Nuka-cola's off his Brahmin, "I'll see you later Lucky."

"See you bud," Lucky said smiling then turned to his guard and Brahmin, "Come on, let's get moving." With that they headed off around back towards Springsvale.

"Come on Nathan," Billy said kindly, "Deputy Wield here is ready to close the gates."

I noticed a man sitting at a boulder looking dehydrated. He was breathing hard as well. My medical instincts and good heart took over then. "Hang on Billy," I said setting my crate down, "Let me check this guy out."

"Okay kid," Billy said sensing my good intentions. I walked over to the old man who didn't notice me.

"So thirsty," He mumbled weakly. He looked more than dehydrated when he was up close.

"Excuse me sir," I asked the old man who looked up at me with hazy eyes, "Are you okay?"

"No," The old man said weakly, "I'm thirsty. I haven't had clean water for I don't know how long." Billy looked sympathetically at the man from behind.

"Okay sir," I said looking at him for wounds. He had a wound on his forearm, "Have you ever had a doctor check you out?"

"No," The man said hopelessly, "Doctors are expensive. I don't have the caps."

"Alright today's your lucky day," I said smiling and rummaging in my backpack, "I just so happen to be one of those Doctors." I pulled out my medical box and three bottles of purified water. I could've sworn I heard Billy mutter, "Well I'll be damned."

The old man looked at me. "But I don't have any caps," He said weakly.

"Don't worry about it," I said kindly, "I'm not one to let someone suffer like this. Now drink a bottle of this real quick." I handed him a bottle of purified water. He drank it down in literally ten seconds.

"Thank you," The old man said.

"Don't thank me yet," I said opening my medical box and pulling out a Rad away liquid pack and a Stimpak syringe. "Let me see your arm."

He held out his arm. It had a wound that looked like something bit his arm. "Care to explain?" I asked.

"One of those ants that are out here," The old man said, "Bit me while I was sleeping. Stockholm shot it up."

"Who's Stockholm? I asked cleaning the dried blood off his arm with one of the purified bottles water. I took a medicinal clothe and wiped down the wound.

"That man up on the catwalk," The old man said, "He saved my life then."

"Alright," I said holding the Stimpak in my hand, "This is going to hurt for a second but it will heal that wound."

"Okay," The old man said weakly. I stuck the needle of the syringe in the area around his wound and injected it. The man's arm twitched out of the pain but he relaxed it again.

"What is that stuff?" He asked.

"It a Stimpak regenerative syringe," I said kindly, "It heals almost any wound and has regenerative properties. I'm about to use the syringe to directly inject the Rad-away in your blood stream. Just let me check your radiation levels."

I set my Pipboy Geiger Counter to scan mode. It read the areas radiation levels and it could detect the levels in the old mans body. It had a 231 count on him. "Well you've got MRP symptoms no doubt about it." I said not realizing I spoke too intelligently for him.

"What is MRP?" He asked nervously.

"Minor Radiation Poisoning," I said, "It causes nausea, you will always feel low on energy, and causes your body's immune system and natural healing process to deteriorate. Thanks to this Stimpak's regenerative properties it will help heal the wound. This Rad away will drop your Rad count down and heal the poisoning." I injected the Rad away with the Stimpak syringe in his arm. Just one injection lowered his count to 103. I still had more Rad away liquid in the pack so I injected more. His count lowered to five counts. I injected the last bit and nothing happened.

"Hmm that's strange," I said looking at the Geiger counter, "The injections won't eradicated the radiation completely."

"That's a fruit about being born out here," Billy said, "Radiation is never really cured from our bodies. Don't know why but it doesn't."

"Interesting," I said looking at this man's Rad count, "Alright." I got up putting my medical box in my backpack. "You should be healthy for a while. Keep the bottle of the purified stuff. I didn't catch your name."

"Micky," the old man said graciously, "and thank you kind sir. Thank you for everything."

"Don't mention it," I said smiling, "Take these to." I gave him twenty bottle caps. "Use them wisely."

"Thank you," Micky said again.

"Your welcome," I said again and walked back over to where Billy was. I picked up my crate of Nuka-cola and walked towards the door with him.

"I know you mean well," Billy said smiling, "But out here it's survival to the fittest. If you have something, giving it to others will only cost you."

"Sorry Billy," I said as the metal barrier closed behind us, "I was raised by standards. If someone is in need I will help them. My dad taught me that." My dad…that's right, I had almost completely forgotten about him. He was the reason I was out here. "Speaking of my dad, have you seen anyone in a vault jumpsuit besides me around here?"

"Sorry man," Billy said, "I haven't seen any new people in town. I've been with Maggie all day at home."

"Who's Maggie?" I asked curiously.

"Oh," Billy said realizing something, "Maggie's my adopted daughter. I walked in on Raiders killing her parents in front of her, laughing about it. She would've been next. I killed the Raiders and took her in. The child hasn't gotten over it since. Hell I wouldn't either. She was only eight when it happened and that was three years ago."

"That's good," I said contently, "at least I know I'm not the only person out here that has worthwhile values."

"Yeah man thanks," Billy said rubbing the back of his head contently. The giant metal doors slid apart revealing a large place. I now knew that the town was surrounded by large metal fencing but I never expected it to be larger than it looked. The buildings were made out of spare sheets of metal like the fencing and some were built out of aircraft parts. The thing that got me was that the town was built in a crater. There were metal ramps and platforms with homemade buildings on them and some buildings held up other buildings up high in the air. There were electric cords running from building to building and several water pipes ran everywhere. I could see more unused crow's nests on top of some of the buildings. The place was also full of people.

"No problem," I said looking around at the town. But someone walked up to us. He was African American with a bushy beard and mustache. He wore a cowboy hat and on a strange overcoat. It was olive green colored with the neck collar sticking up. The sleeves were around elbow length but were rolled up as well. It had huge pockets and a badge pinned on it shaped like a star as well. The man also wore beige pants and black combat boots. He had a different kind of assault rifle strapped to his back.

"Hey Billy," The man said, "Another visitor?"

"Good afternoon Sheriff," Billy replied patting me on the shoulder, "Yep he's a newbie out here. Nice kid, he helped old Micky out there with Medical treatment for free."

"Pleasure to meet you boy," The Sheriff said smiling, "but I'll be damned, you're the second man I've seen to come out of that vault wearing one of them there jumpsuits."

Then something clicked. "Another man from Vault 101 passed through here?" I asked hoping so, "Did he have dark gray hair with a beard and mustache?"

"Yeah," The Sheriff said nodding, "come to think of it he did. He said hey to me and disappeared around here somewhere. But I think he left soon after." My heart sank a bit.

"Did he say where he was going?" I asked desperately. _Please god, let him say yes._

"Sorry boy," The Sheriff said, "He didn't. But the man had a look in his eye, you know the kind of look someone has when he's got a purpose? Why you know him?

"Yeah," I said sighing in disappointment, "He was my dad. There were complications after he left. I had to leave the Vault. So I came to find him." My shoulders slouched a bit.

Sheriff looked at me sympathetically. "I'm sorry boy," the Sheriff said, "If I see him again, I'll ask him what he's up to. If you leave town and decide to come back, I'll tell you."

"Thanks," I said sort of cheered up.

"What's your name son?" The sheriff asked, "Mine's Lucas Simms."

"Nathan Warren," I replied.

"Well Nathan," The Sheriff said, "Come on down to the Brass Lantern and get some food in you, my treat. You look like you need a good meal."

"Thanks Sheriff," I said happily, "but you don't have to do this."

"Yeah I know," Lucas said smiling, "But you look like you've been through enough Hell for one day. Wanna join us Billy? Maggie and Harden can come too."

"Well sure Sheriff," Billy said like that was unexpected, "I'll go get the two little critters."

"Good," Lucas said, "Meet us there."

"Will do," Billy said walking off around a building to the right.

"Who's Harden?" I asked as Lucas led me down the side of a hill by stairs.

"My son," Lucas said proudly, "He's a good kid, helps me clean Deputy's Steel and Wield. He wants to be the town sheriff when he grows up just like his old man." We both chuckled at this. The way the Sheriff talked about his son, he was just like I was, wanting to follow in his dad's footsteps.

On the way down the stairs there was another branch of stairs going back up to another set of platforms and buildings. We passed another Brahmin between a ramp that led up to the higher platforms and a clinic building. We walked to an outside bar with a roof over it. There were six stools at the bar on the outside and behind it were a stove, refrigerator, and a prep area. A woman was leaning against the wall of the building and the door to her right.

"Hey Jenny," The sheriff said, "We are waiting on Billy, Maggie, and Harden for lunch."

"Well that's fine Sheriff," The woman named Jenny said then turned to me, "Now I know I've never seen you here before. You must be visiting, I'm Jenny Stahl, one of employees here at the Brass Lantern. My brother owns the place.

"Nice to meet you ma'am," I said nodding, "Out of curiosity you said you were just an employee and your brother owns it?"

"Yep," Jenny said happy to explain, "Andy had this crazy idea of opening a bar and restaurant growing up. He owns it, and I and our older brother Leo are the only employees. I work the outside shift mostly between 6:00 am and 9:00 pm. and whenever someone wants a drink between twelve in the afternoon and six in the morning, Leo's got it."

"I see," I said looking at the sign next to her. It read, "The Brass Lantern" wrote in white paint. I looked up at some strange symbols that were most likely Chinese writing, this was hanging above the Brass Lanterns door.

A little Caucasian girl and an African American boy came running up to us with Billy behind. They came from another set of stairs down a hill between two platformed areas. Both kids looked like they were eleven years old. I noticed some kind of giant egg shaped rocket looking thing was in the middle of the crater we were in. It was situated in shallow water as well.

"Hey kids," Lucas said, "Been playing hard?"

"Yes sir," The two said at the same time and got on the stools. Billy walked up even saying hey to another settler on the way.

"So you two hungry?" Lucas asked.

"Uh huh," The boy said, "What can we have dad?" The boy had a cheerful expression.

"Anything Jenny has," Lucas said taking off his cowboy hat and putting it on his son's head.

"Go on and order Maggie," Billy said happily. Maggie nodded in response. I couldn't help but smile. There were indeed a lot of worthwhile people out here.

"So Nathan," Lucas said, "How old are you?"

"Nineteen and six months I replied looking around at the higher part of town.

"Anything for you, Nathan?" Jenny asked pleasantly after taking the others orders.

"Yes ma'am," I said looking at the menu, "I'll try the iguana bits and Molerat meat please." It was then I remembered that Lucky said he was going to give me some Molerat meat to snack on but I guess the events of the day had let it slipped.

The Sheriff continued our conversation with Billy listening in. "Well if you're that old then you must have had a profession or something right?"

"Haha," I said smiling a bit, "Yeah, I was a scientist down in the Vault. I specialized in Medical skills and engineering. I had to work with the Vault security in developing Frag grenades too. My dad and a family friend had been teaching me how to shoot and maintain weaponry since I was ten. They both were medical scientists as well. The family friend Jonas had been murdered by the vault security accused of helping my father escape from the vault. They went after me so I escaped as well. Now I'm here, thanks to Lucky Harith."

Lucas looked at me with sympathy. "Well sounds like you went through all kinds of Hell," Lucas said nodding.

"You don't know the half of it," I said with my memories of escaping crept up on me. I popped the top on one of my Nuka colas as my food was served.

"Maggie and Harden," I said, "Do you two want a Nuka cola?" The two looked at Billy and Lucas.

"It's fine with us," Billy said shrugging his shoulders.

"Yes please," Maggie said kindly as Harden said, "Please?"

"Here you go," I said giving them each a bottle of Nuka Cola.

"Want one fellas?" I asked.

"Sure," They both said taking one each. After the meal we sat there for a while talking like old friends would about the two kids. It was around six forty in the afternoon before we decided to move. Some of Megaton's lights came on. Strands of prewar white lights were every where and the store advertisement lights flickered on.

"I'll see you two around," Lucas said, "I have to make my rounds in town." With that he took his hat off his son's head and put it on his own.

"See you later," Billy and I said at the same time. With that Lucas nodded and walked off. I turned back around to the counter deep in thought. Where could my dad had gone? Why? He was just here in Megaton, if only I had just found this place sooner, I would have met him leaving…damn it. Out of frustration rubbed my forehead.

"You okay Nathan?" Billy asked looking at me.

"Yeah," I said sighing, "I just wish I knew where my dad went."

Billy looked at me perplexed. "Let's head on up to Moriorty's Saloon," He said finally, "Most travelers who come through here go there for information. Your dad might've stopped by there. Moriorty knows a lot of people. If your dad was there, he could tell you."

"Really?" I said surprised.

"Yeah," Billy said, "But be careful with Moriorty. He has a habit of being mistrustful. He thinks he runs the town."

"You don't have to tell me twice," I said laughing a bit. Finally, maybe I had found a loop hole through this situation involving my father. With luck I could find out where he went in this saloon.

Maggie and Harden got up and went running somewhere laughing. We got up and I noticed some kind of large object situated in a large puddle of water. The thing looked like a giant metal football with a fan attached to its rear that pointed up diagonally. On the side in black markings something was written, "Megaton."

Some one was good with sculpting metal. The thing almost looked like a bomb or something similar. "Hey who made that thing?" I asked looking at it impressively.

"Oh that?" Billy asked casually as we passed it, "That's the towns live atomic bomb."

I dropped my crate of Nuka-Colas. "What!" I exclaimed shocked and startled.

"Yep," Billy said sighing indifferently, "Sheriff Simms has been trying to find someone to disarm it for a while now. He won't hire anyone around here though. The only one here with the technical know how would be Walter the water dude and Moira Brown the towns scientist and Merchant. Walter's eye sight is getting bad in his old age and Moira is a bit on the crazy side."

You know if it weren't for the fact that I was standing in front of a potentially armed and ready to explode live atomic bomb that could send me and everything around me to hell, and in doing this give me a birds eye view of the capital wasteland….I'd think what he just told me was the most important thing in the world. Damn what the hell did I get myself into? These people were psychotic living here. Scratch that, whoever built a town around a freaking atomic bomb is psychotic.

"You know Billy," I said my legs trembling, "No offense, who in their right state of mind would live here with that thing ready to explode?"

"Idiots," Billy said simply, "I know this place isn't perfect, but I can't risk taking Maggie to another settlement because of the wasteland's wildlife." He looked mortified of his words. I can see why he would want to leave but couldn't. It would put Maggie's life in jeopardy.

I looked at that thing one more time shaking my finger at it with a determined expression. "We have to do something about that thing," I said trying to find reasoning with myself about disarming it.

"What could we do?" Billy asked hoplessly, "I'm not good with explosives and I don't even know where to begin to find the right tools for the job."

I looked at him nodding with an expression. "Do you remember my profession?" I asked as we walked up a set of stairs that led to a place called the common house.

Billy thought for a second then an expression came over him. "Wait," He said his one eye widened a bit, "You're saying you can disarm that thing?"

"I can try," I said as we turned to the right. We were in a back area behind all the buildings now. "I need to take a look at it first."

We walked behind a large building two story homemade building stationed halfway on a platform and halfway on the edge of the crater. We walked around pass a side entrance and onto the platform. There were two settlers leaning against the railing in front of the saloon. I couldn't help but admire the view of the town. I could see pretty much the entire town from here. I could even see the stairs that lead to the entrance of the town and The Brass Lantern beside it. Then I could see the atomic bomb still there and people around it. That sent shivers up my spine and stopped my nostalgia moment.

"Who are those people?" I asked.

"That's the Church of Atom," One of the settlers answered my question said, "They worship that bomb."

"They're a bunch of crazies in other words," the other said.

I just shook my head.

"Come on Nathan," Billy said gesturing me to the door of the saloon. I could hear talking inside and the occasional laughter through the door. I followed him in and I found out what a 'real saloon' looks like. There was a sectional bar with customers and drunks sitting at it and standing all around talking to each other. There were chairs everywhere lined up against the walls and even a sitting room. There was a large gap up above us revealing another floor and people were up there as well enjoying their booze and drinks. I could see four doors on the ground floor. One was probably the bathroom, another was the dish room, another led to a back room, the last was somewhere around here because there was a side entrance to the building.

I didn't get a good glimpse of the top floor but I wasn't complaining. This place was a mess. I could see Jericho sitting in the sitting room as Billy and I made our way to the bar. I was dumbfounded when I could see a man or creature banging against a radio.

The thing had a human shape but his skin was rotten looking and cracked. He hardly had hair and his eyes were yellow like he was strung out of Jet. He did wear clothing which was at least decent. I couldn't understand how something like this could happen to someone.

"Work you piece of shit!" The man said and his voice was dry and cracked, "I want Three Dog and G.N.R!" He banged on the radio again but all he got was static.

A woman who was leaning against a wall just sighed. She had a grayish short sleeved jacket with a kind of skirt and leggings with boots. Her hair was reddish orange and was scrawled in a mess and she had green eyes. "Just give it a rest Gob," She said over some of the talking, "Galaxy News has been shit lately. Turn it to Enclave."

The man thing just grumbled. Gob gave me a look. "What the fuck you staring at?" He demanded.

"Just wondering what happened to you," I said realizing I was indeed staring at the man.

"I got into a lot of radiation before the bombs fell," Gob Grumbled, "What you've never seen a ghoul before?"

"Nope," I said simply, "Can it be reversed my friend?"

The so called 'ghoul' looked at me jaw cringed and everything. His expression changed to confusion. "Wait you're not gonna hit me? Berate me a little? Not even insult me?" He asked confused.

"Why would I?" I asked perplexed, "People give you a hard time or something?"

"Yeah smoothskin," Gob said looking at me like I was going to flip on him any second, "Your kind don't like mine. Not much anyways."

"Why not?" I asked confused, "Because you're different?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gob asked slightly defensively.

"Nothing Gob," I said perplexed by his attitude, "I just don't see what the problem is."

Gob looked at me perplexed. "What's wrong with you?" He asked slightly prejudiced, "all smoothskins hate us."

"Not me," I said truthfully, "It's not like you did anything to me. I was raised to accept people for who they are and what they looked like."

Gob gave me a look again like he was deciding whether I was trying to trick him or something. But before he could say something some drunk guy came out of nowhere.

"Hey you piece of shit ghoul," He said slurring, "I want another drink."

"Give me a second," Gob grumbled.

"Now!" The man slurred grabbing Gob by the collar of his torn shirt and slinging him to the ground. Everyone started laughing except for me, the woman leaning against the wall, and Billy.

The drunken man was about to walk around the bar when I reacted. "Oh Hell no you don't," I said grabbing the man's collar in the same manner he did Gob and pushed him into a wall.

The man looked back around at me drunkenly. "What the hell man?" He asked wobbly.

"You just pushed him for nothing you drunk asshole," I said like the dude was an idiot.

"He deserved it!" the man said looking at me trying to focus on my face, "And I'm not drunk!"

"If you're not drunk," I said slightly sarcastic, "then I'm no doctor."

He swung at me. I caught his fist easily. He was so drunk he couldn't keep his arm from shaking. He went to punch me with his other arm but I spun him around and pushed him into the wall again. The man turned around looking at me annoyingly. He went to pull out a N99 10mm pistol. I quickly moved his arm up and elbowed him in his gut. He dropped the gun and leaned down in pain. I went to walk away towards Gob but he ran at me. I just turned around and decked him in the face before he could react. He fell down unconscious.

I walked over and gave Gob a hand up. "Thanks," he said amazed by me.

"No problem," I said sitting down at the bar by a stool. The other customers looked at me not saying a word obviously surprised by my sudden outbreak. Jericho was looking at me grinning.

"Now," I said simply, "Let's talk about something."

….

That's it for this chapter!

So how was it? I know I know cliff hanger. I used to get slightly frustrated with these things but it'll fit nicely with the next chapter. Tell me what you think and possible predictions by reviews. I honestly don't care what kind.


	5. Solving the Power of Atom

Chapter 5:

Solving the Power of Atom

_..._

_"It is here a town was built around a Hellish destructive Bomb. I will try to disarm it, but there are those who wish to detonate it."_

_..._

Gob looked at me perplexed. The sight of me, a smoothskin as he would call it, protecting him who was a ghoul probably dumbfounded him. But I think I had just taught him and everyone around that I was not like other people. I had moral values and I expected myself to follow them. I just looked at Gob like he was another human. Everyone else couldn't get over what just happened. Billy I think couldn't believe me doing this.

He sat down next to me in another stool. Gob looked happy. He obviously had never had someone defend him before. "Kid if you ever need a drink or something," Gob said thankful, "I'll give you a discount. But don't tell Moriorty though. He won't like it."

"Thanks," I said smiling, "But I don't drink. I might have a beer occasionally, maybe once every two days but no big deal. You've seen what drinking does to stupid people."

Gob laughed at this dryly. I knew he meant it but his current state of health had made him sound all grumpy. "I came here to ask about someone," I said business like.

"Ask away friend," Gob said happily, "By the way, what's your name again?"

"Nathan," I said simply, "I'm looking for my father. He was from Vault 101 like me. He probably had a jumpsuit on like mine or a lab coat. I've been looking for him since I left. The Sheriff said he came through but he didn't know where he went during his visit here."

Gob looked at me perplexed. "I think there was a guy that came through here earlier like that. He talked with Moriarty and they both left around the same time he came. Moriorty said he would be back tomorrow or something like that. I don't care, Moriorty's an asshole to begin with. Check back tomorrow afternoon. There's no telling when he'd come back but to be honest, I don't care if he does."

Wow this Moriarty must be an asshole if half of everyone around here talks about him. "Alright Gob," I said sighing, "Thanks for the help man. It's getting late. I need to catch some sleep."

"Alright," Gob said smiling, "See you later kid."

"Will do," I said getting up and I said very loudly, "Next time someone around here messes with you, tell me. I'll have a word or two with them. They'll be on the ground like this asshole down here." I wanted it clear that I can possibly and will beat down anyone who beats on Gob. He was still human after all, I think.

"Yes sir," Gob said smiling to himself.

"Coming Billy?" I asked.

"Nah," Billy said, "I'm staying for a drink."

"Suit yourself," I said nodding.

With that I walked around to the exit and out the door. I walked to my left and turned around the side of the Saloon. There was a set of stairs on the hill that went under a walkway. I was so tired at the moment I didn't care where I slept, whether it was out the town gates or under a piece of metal. It was kind of cold out here though. I was under some kind of walk way that connected a store and a bathroom. Yawning I made my way under the store and smoothed out the slanted land to make a small leveled area good for sleeping on. I put my crate on the slope under my bedding area and my backpack above my head. This place wasn't flashy but it was my sleeping spot for now. There was the clinic that blocked view from the bottom of the slop and a sheet of metal that was meant for keeping people from under here blocked people from seeing me from the left. To the right were more buildings and sheets of metal. Not to mention that the light from the signs and lanterns would play tricks on people looking up under here do to shadowed lighting. My stuff and I were safe that was for sure. I didn't have any problems falling asleep.

I woke up around six in the morning. I could hear the sounds of Megaton all around me. People talking, someone preaching, and the occasional wind that was picking up. I sat up sideways on my bedding stretching my limbs and yawning. I looked down the slope with my elbows on my thighs and me slouching. I could see part of the Atomic Bomb sitting there ready to blow up. I couldn't help but feel annoyed with the entire situation. That thing had to go.

I got up and made my way out the small area without my backpack and Nuka-cola. I had to do something about this freaking bomb. I wobbled up the stairs ready to yawn. I made sure I had both my pistols on me with spare ammo. I also had a decent amount of caps. I walked towards the center of town having no choice but to listen to some nut preach about the freaking bomb. Atom or whatever had to go bye bye. I couldn't stand to see these people in danger.

I just kept walking to the Brass Lantern. "Howdy," I said to Jenny rubbing my eye. I said it out of humor more than anything.

She turned from her oven and laughed a bit. "Good morning Nathan," She said smiling, "What can I get you?"

"Anything breakfast wise," I said yawning. I looked sleepily up at the Saloon wondering if Moriorty was up there yet. Then I remembered Gob said he'd be in sometime in the afternoon.

"Rough night?" She asked handing me some iguana bits.

"You could say that," I said then started eating.

"Morning Jenny," Someone said. I turned to see an old man in a similar outfit as Billy wore. He was Caucasian but it could've fooled you with the complexion of his skin and had white hair.

"Well good morning Nathan," Jenny replied genuinely, "Heard anything new on the Enclave Station?" At first I thought she was talking about me, then I realized that the old man was Nathan as well.

"Nope," The old man said cheerfully, "God bless the Enclave, they've been working to change America for a long time now! Eden says change is coming!"

"Well," Jenny said smiling, "That change better get here soon. We can't have them prolonging us can we?"

"No ma'am," Nathan said cheerfully, "I'll see you later Jenny,"

"Alrighty Nathan," Jenny said, "Have a good day."

"You too," Nathan said walking off happily.

When he was out of earshot I turned my attention to Jenny. "Pardon me ma'am," I said perplexed, "But what is the Enclave?"

"Some organization or something that wants to rebuild America," Jenny said, "Old man Nathan preaches highly about them. I only hear the broadcasts they send out, I hardly ever see any of their so called soldiers. That Nathan has got a good heart but I think he's just talking about old broadcasts."

"Oh," I said finishing up my breakfast, "What do I owe you?"

"Four caps," Jenny said simply. I gave her just that.

"Good morning you two," I heard a deep voice. It was Sheriff Simms.

"Morning Sheriff," Jenny and I said at the same time. I remembered I wanted to talk about the bomb in the center of town. He nodded and walked towards the entrance to Megaton. I heard someone preaching behind me. It was the Confessor of the Church of Atom. I heard him say:

"Behold, Glorious Atom. He will one day join us in his sanction. The Power of Atom will invoke his hospitality on us all."

I seriously did not want to listen to this nonsense. They worshipped a freaking bomb! That's the most fucked up thing I've heard all day. Not wanting to listen to any more of it so I decided to leave the Brass Lantern to talk with Sheriff Lucas Simms. "I'll catch you later Jenny," I said getting up.

I caught up with Lucas and walked side by side with him. "I hear you have the expertise for disarming that bomb," Lucas said casually as we made our way up the stairs of the slope.

I was slightly surprised by his knowledge of this. "Billy?" I asked.

"Yeah," Lucas said, "He keeps tabs on everything for me. I can't be everywhere at once so he is a great help."

"I see," I said as we made our way to the top.

"Barely anyone around here knows that bomb is ready to detonate with a charge," Lucas said as we stopped at a sheet of metal, "I try to keep it that way. People would panic if they knew."

"I can see why you would," I said looking back down the slope, "I'll see what I can do with it."

"If you can do it," Lucas said, "I'll give you five hundred caps. Hell I'll even throw in a house."

I looked at him nodding. "I'll do my best," I said nodding, "But I'll need someone to help me with obtaining supplies."

"Supplies?" Lucas asked perplexed and leaning against the sheet of metal with his arms folded.

"Yeah," I said intelligently, "A bomb that size and the complexity of its shape and size would obviously have to have tools and replacement parts for it. It's not as simple as rewiring it. You have to make sure it won't blow up."

Lucas looked at me thinking. "I'll let you take a crack at it," He said finally, "Just let me know what you'll need."

"Will do," I said nodding, "Any clue where I can get basic tools?"

"Check with Moira at Crater Side Supply," Lucas said, "Or one of the Caravan's. They have all kinds of tools and junk."

"Very well," I said thankful for the information, "I'll get it done." With that I walked towards the store I slept under called Crater Side Supply. I went to open the door but it was locked.

"She doesn't open till eight," I heard someone say. It was Jericho who looked sleepy. He was sitting in a chair next to the door.

"Morning Jericho," I said back.

"Morning kid," He responded gruffly, "Nice show last night."

"Ha ha," I said, "Thanks. Hey do you know when the Caravan's will be in? The sooner I get tools the better."

Jericho looked at me perplexed. "I'm guessing old Lucas hired you to take a look at the bomb huh?" He asked casually. Dang does everyone around here know everything?

"Yeah and how you knew that I don't know," I said nodding.

"I can tell kid," Jericho said gruffly, "You've got a look in your eye. The type of look someone has when they can change the world." He got up and turned his back to me. "The Caravan Merchant Crazy Wolfgang has everything you need. He usually comes around this time of day. He might be here an hour later or earlier. You never know with those Merchants."

"Thanks," I said as he walked off not saying a word. Jericho looked like one of those men who hardly said anything but had good intentions. Either that or my 'good detecting' scale was off.

I just let him go and I walked back towards Megatons entrance. Sheriff Simms was standing at the gates.

"I'm heading outside," I told him, "Check with one of the caravan Merchants for tools."

"Alright," Lucas said, "I'll let Stockholm know."

"Thank you Sheriff," I said sliding the gate open a little bit so I could get through. I closed the gate behind me and I heard the large engine fan winding up. The barriers opened revealing the outside world. I walked outside to see Deputy Wield walking forward towards the Springvale road. I walked out the barrier area to see two Radscorpions scurrying this way from the road. They both pinched their panzers rapidly and charged at Deputy Wield. Deputy Wield uttered something unintelligibly and shot two lasers out of his robotic palms of his hands.

Both Radscorpions quit moving and then out of nowhere another jumped at Deputy Wield from a boulder from behind. Before the Radscorpion even touched Deputy Wield a shot came from above me and the scorpion dropped dead. I couldn't help but whistle a little impressed. Deputy Wield turned around stating: _Scanning…..no threat detected. Resuming Sentry Protocol for gates of Megaton._

Deputy Wield began walking towards where he stood when I first met him at. I looked over where I left Micky yesterday. He was walking towards his sitting spot from up the rocky hill. Apparently he was scared of the Radscorpions and had fled the area. I looked around the area. No Caravan Merchants, no nothing, just dust, dirt, and rock. Well if you added the roof tops of Springvale things were different.

After the little encounter of the Radscorpions I took in the view of the Hellish Wasteland once again. It was still so hard to believe a place like this could exist. It was so hellish, so unforgiving, yet so amazing at the same time. I couldn't help but notice the nature that this land was vibrantly giving off. The wastes, burnt trees, prewar structures, giant scorpions, and two headed cows known as Brahmin, it felt like a dark twisted fantasy, yet here I was out here living in it all.

As Micky sat down I asked him, "Do you sleep out here or something?"

"No," Micky said with dryness in his voice, "I sleep on the old mattress inside the barrier before the gates."

"Oh," I said looking at the path to Springvale. I was going to be here for a while until the Caravans showed up so I decided to make do small talk with him. "So you're homeless?"

"No," Micky said, "I actually used to live in Springvale. Well until the Raiders showed up and took over that damn school. Have you seen the old boarded up house that is still intact?"

"Sorry I didn't go that far into Springvale when I came out," I said sitting down next to him, "The furthest I went was the weird car stop with the red structure over it."

"Oh," Micky said dryly, "The old boarded up house has all my belongings in it. The Raiders don't know I used to live there and once they're cleared out I'll go back."

I thought about this for a little bit. From what I heard about Raiders from the Caravan Merchant Lucky, they basically do anything they want, including killing for fun. I couldn't help but have sympathy for Micky, but I couldn't do anything, even if I could I didn't have the slightest idea of how many Raiders would be there.

"Those Raiders will be long gone someday," I said encouragingly.

"Yeah maybe," Micky said hopelessly, "but when Raiders find a place they like, you have to kill them to get rid of them."

"Keep your hopes up," I said still trying to be encouraging, "Something might happen one day."

"Alright," Micky said smiling weakly. He looked forward and said, "Hey I think the Caravan Merchants are here."

I looked to the path that came from Springvale to see two figures walking this way. There wasn't a pack Brahmin with them. As they got closer I could see their clothing. They wore large navy blue overcoats, black pants, black boats, and sunglasses. One of them had a head-wrap on and the other had a hat on with a white cloth around her neck, and goggles mounted on the bill of the hat. I couldn't see no visible weapons on them but their over coats probably hid all their belongings.

They ignored me and Micky as they walked by but there was something about them I didn't like. I didn't know why, but that feeling was there. Deputy Wield halted them at the barrier.

"Welcome to Megaton," Deputy Wield said, "Please stand by for scanning." The two people looked at each other then back at Wield. "Scanning…..scanning…..scan confirmed…hostility is hardly likely…..please have a nice day and stay out of trouble."

The two walked forward into the gates. "That was unusual," I said frowning, "Even Deputy Wield was skeptic about them."

"I've never seen Deputy Wield have scan results like that before," Micky said looking troubled.

"Yeah," I said understanding this, "I think the Sheriff needs to know about them." I got up and walked towards Deputy Wield.

"Uh Wield," I said before I went in.

The robot cut me off. "Please address me in my codename Deputy Wield," the Protectron said slowly.

"Deputy Wield?" I asked, "Can you confirm a scan on the newest visitors?"

"You are not authorized to order me to do so," Deputy Wield said, "I only take orders from Sheriff Lucas Simms."

"Very well," I said sighing. There was no point in arguing with a Protectron. If it was programmed to do something it would, whether it was shooting you, guarding something, or patrolling. I had to admit I was slightly frustrated with the robot. I walked inside of the Megaton gates to see the two navy blue figures walking down the stairs. Sheriff Simms was still leaning on the sheet of metal to the left eyeing them.

"Sheriff," I said looking at the two suspiciously, "Those two are up to something."

"I figured so," Lucas said troubled, "They're Mercenaries. I'm not sure who they are but I don't like them."

"I don't think they're here on a picnic either," I said tensely.

"Probably not," Lucas agreed, "I'll have Billy and a few of the shop owners keep an eye on them. Have the Caravan Merchants arrived yet?"

"Not yet," I said still watching the two visitors, "I'm getting ready to head back out there." The visitors started walking up the stairs between the platforms. I remembered that my stuff was under the store. "Hey can you do me a favor Sheriff?"

"What is it?" He replied.

"I left my stuff under the uh, store," I said pointing at the one with the airplane hull on it, "Can you watch it for me?"

Lucas looked at me concerned but slightly angry. "You slept under Moira's?" He asked slightly annoyed, "I won't have people sleeping outside in my town. Micky's bad enough."

"Whoa whoa," I said sorry I brought that up, "I didn't know sorry."

"Ugh," Sheriff Simms said, "If only we had more room in this place, then people wouldn't be sleeping outside."

I thought about someone else. I looked above us at the catwalk. "What about that guy Stockholm?" I asked confused.

"He's got a strange contraption up there where he lowers one of those beams and it leads to my roof top," Lucas said, "He sleeps in that hollowed out rocket up there."

I started to wonder how Lucas could have the entire area around Megaton watched, even during the night. Then I noticed crows nests on the rooftops and the walls. They were small enough you hardly wouldn't notice them but big enough to fit one person and a rotating chair. I could see some of the Megaton Settlers in a few of them. I became vaguely aware of the activity on the rooftops. I always focused on the platforms and ground. I never really thought about people living on the rooftops. The bad thing is, I think there is a platform that has you walking along one on the ground.

Lucas seemed to notice my curiosity. "Just now realized we use the roofs and crows nests?" He asked, "That's the best part about this town. Visitors who mean harm never realize how surrounded they are. Thank Manya Vargas' father. He designed the entire town."

"Who is Manya?" I asked perplexed. God I had to be up to date in this town. I felt like an Outcast not knowing things like this.

"Oh that's old Nathan Vargas' wife," Lucas said, "She's a nice old lady and they're an old couple anyways. They both were in the Caravan Merchant business and decided to retire in Megaton. I value their opinions highly when it comes to doing what is best for Megaton, except for kicking out Moriorty."

It was again with Moriarty. Pretty much every person I've talk to has something bad to say about him. If he's as bad as everyone says then why in the Hell is my dad hanging out with him?

"Is this Moriarty a bad man or something?" I asked out of curiousness.

"Nathan the man tries to cheat people out of money," Lucas said roughly, "He has whores who keep men satisfied with his Saloon, and he sells his drinks twice the amount they're actually worth. He even tried to take over the town and force visitors to pay to get in like this was a tourist trap. Trust me Nathan, the man's an evil bastard. If it weren't for the fact he pays part of the town fees for twenty percent, I'd issue a bounty on him for my friends."

Okay it was official, Moriarty's an asshole. I decided not to push Lucas too far, seeing how he got all worked up with the man and all. And what was this about a bounty and his supposedly friends? Was he joking around or something? Either way I didn't want to find out. But one thing was for sure. I had to find out where my dad went and why he left the vault, so far Moriarty was the only man that could help me…..damn.

"Well okay Sheriff," I said trying to change the subject, "I'll take your word on the man, but I'm heading back out to watch for the Caravans.

"Okay Nathan," Lucas said smiling weakly.

I walked out the gates and the barrier. Man I just woke up and I end up on a learning trip. What else could happen today other than the fact I attempt to learn about my dad, and disarm a holocaustic nuclear bomb?

I walked towards the mouth of the open barrier. There were three figures walking this way from the path. One of them was a pack Brahmin. Then I could make out the appearance of the two people as they got closer. One was a guard in the same leather armor and weaponry as Lucky's guard. He had short black hair that was scrawled and dark eyes. The other fellow, the Caravan Merchant that is, had a brownish heavy coat on with several pouches and pockets, a pair of blue fabricated pants that were worn out, and black shoes that were similar to boots. His appearance was nothing but slightly amusing. He had black hair and green eyes but his expression was similar to a drunken person. I couldn't smell any alcohol on him which was strange, so there I concluded he wasn't drunk.

He and his two followers stood at the same spot Lucky did the day before. I approached them becoming much closer. Nope, no alcoholic smell. "Excuse me sir," I started but was cut off.

"Welcome sir or Madam to Crazy Wolfgang's high supply of," He said dramatically, "…junk. How may I be of assistance to you?"

I looked at him a little off, he was kind of amusing. "Uh," I said suppressing a laugh, "Can I ask what kind of Merchandise you sell?"

Wolfgang looked at me like a confused dog. "Junk," He said simply.

"Yeah but-"

"Junk."

"I know sir but what kind of-"

"Junk."

"I know sir but what kind of ju-"

"Just junk sir."

He looked at me with a pleasant expression. The crazy in his name was starting to make an impression. In fact this was one of those times when you hear a word so many times it sounds strange like it is not a word, just a sound…junk. If I wanted to avoid him telling me what he sold one more time, I had to be directly to the point. But before I could say anything he started with:

"I sell scrap metal, wonderglue, tape, flashlights, engine parts, old cans, tools, gears, sprockets, tires, wheels, teddy bears, watches, spikes, tubing, vacuum cleaners, civil ware, lawn mower blades, a stick, and crap."

He said it so fast I couldn't gather my thoughts. "Wait what?" I said catching on to his words, "You sell tools correct?"

"Possibly maybe," He asked just as quick, "why do you ask? You want some of my tools? Ha you can't have any. Wait just kidding, what kind?"

I blinked confused. "You know what?" I said trying to dull down the insanity, "Let me see what you've got."

"Okay!" He said happily like he was a kid. He turned around and pulled off a large crate obviously heavy. He opened the top to reveal all sorts of hardware. Wrenches of different sizes, screw drivers of different sizes, power drills, hammers, staple guns, nail guns, and several other tools I didn't even want to name at the moment.

"Do you have a tool box?" I asked hoping so. If he didn't this was gonna be a long day trying to tote everything around.

"Yep," He replied and pulled out a toolbox that was portable.

"Okay," I said relieved, "I'll take one of all the tools you have and the tool box."

Before I could even think of anything else Wolfgang already had my toolbox loaded. "That'll be fifty caps," Wolfgang said pleasurably.

I counted out fifty and gave them to him. It was still strange using bottle caps as currency, but I put that aside and grabbed my newly acquired merchandise. I was expecting Crazy Wolfgang to shout or say something in speeds of those prewar cheetahs I learned about in the vault but he threw me off again. "Thank you for doing business with me," He said mannerly, "Please do me a favor and have a nice day."

I raised an eyebrow confused. As I walked away I realized that Crazy Wolfgang was…..an odd one. I didn't think anything of it of course; instead I focused on the problem at hand, which was of course the ready to explode atomic bomb. I walked towards Megatons gates and didn't look back for a second knowing I'd just draw more curiosity from myself trying to figure out this man's true motives and personality. It seemed like this Crazy Wolfgang's personality was just a ruse, or an act.

I opened the gate slightly and shifted in while closing the gate behind me. Sheriff Simms wasn't leaning on his gigantic sheet of metal. I looked at my Pipboy's time; it was 9:06 in the morning. People were more out and about now. I just kept to my business and walked towards my little area under the store. I put my toolbox near my backpack. Nothing had been moved yet. So I assumed no one had been under here. I got out from under the place and decided to check up on the Saloon and see if Moriorty was back yet, even though I had been outside the gates all this time and he didn't come from there it couldn't hurt to have a look.

I walked up to the Saloon and inside it. The place was packed but not as bad as last night. The same people who had been in here last night all stared at me then quickly avoided eye contact. Jericho and Billy Creel were here as well. Of course Gob and the same red haired woman were behind the bar.

"Looks like you made quite an impression," someone said from beside me. Over the noise I could hardly hear him. It was Sheriff Simms.

"Oh you're in here," I said casually, "I've got all the tools I'll probably need."

"Have you taken a look at the bomb?" Lucas asked leaning against the wall.

"No," I said leaning on the wall next to him, "I wanted your okay again."

"You have it," Lucas said casually, "I've been watching our guests."

"Really?" I said inconspicuously, "Gathered anything?"

"Yeah," Lucas said eyeing someone, "Billy and Jericho have been watching them as well. They both have been deep in conversation with a man that just arrived here a few days before yourself. His name is Cory Burke, or Mister Burke as he refers himself as. The man is a shady character, always coming into the Saloon and spending the day here. He's in the sitting room right over there in the corner. He's definitely made some new friends."

I causally glanced at the sitting room to see a man in a white suit and hat with glasses sitting in the corner talking quietly to the two blue over coated people. "You don't even have to look at them long and tell they're up to something," I said.

"Exactly," Lucas said casually, "I know it isn't about the good for this town." I looked at the three again. It wasn't like me to eavesdrop on people but there was something about these three people I didn't like. I began contemplating on ways to find out what they were talking about. I looked around at the saloon's guests. Then it clicked.

Billy and Jericho walked up to us as soon as they saw me. "I told him," Lucas said before they could do anything.

"But how are we going to find out?" Jericho asked.

"Yeah," Billy said, "It's obvious they aren't going to just tell us."

I made an expression debating on putting my plan in action. "I got an idea," I said walking towards the bar and Gob.

"Wait where are you going?" Lucas asked.

"For a drink," I said simply and grinning mischievously.

Billy looked at me confused. "But you don't drink," He said probably remembering what I said the night before.

"Yeah I know," I said still grinning, "Hey whatever happens let it go okay?"

"Okay," Lucas said unsurely.

I left them to get through the crowd to Gob. "Hey Gob," I said charismatically, "I've got to find something out. Uh give me the Vodka now and I'll pay in a little bit."

"Is it important?" He asked looking at me confused.

"Important enough," I said faking unintelligence, "for the Sheriff to approve of what I'm about to do."

"Go crazy," He said tossing me a bottle of Vodka.

"Ignore anything that comes out of my mouth," I said looking at the bottle.

"Why?" Gob asked curiously.

"It will probably be offending," I said sighing, "I don't mean any of it."

"Okay," the ghoul said unsure.

I popped the top and looked at him unintelligibly. "You fucking ghoul," I said swaying side to side, "You better not be lying about this shit!"

Gob looked at me confused but then he was at ease. "Uh that is the Vodka you wanted," Gob said like I was just another drunk.

"This doesn't look like Vodka," I argued slouching at him a bit, "Ah what the Hell do you know anyway? You're just a fucking zombie."

I shoved him slightly and staggered away pouring some Vodka out the bottle in my mouth I staggered into the bathroom like area and spit it out quietly. I even poured half the Vodka out the bottle. I did it inconspicuously though where no one saw. Damn this was the most fucked up plan in the world. My mouth was on fire because of the taste; I was even making an expression like I just swallowed crap or something. I staggered out the bathroom place holding onto the wall for support.

I looked around at the few who were looking at me. "Whuat areu lookinat," I slurred, "I'll knockya blockzoffed youbuncha heathin's!" They all looked back a way. I staggered towards the door where Lucas, Billy, and Jericho were.

"Damn," Jericho said sounding amazed

"That's gotta be the best plan I've heard all day," Billy said almost laughing.

"What the hell you freaks want?" I asked with an unintelligible expression.

They all picked up on it real quick. "Boy," Lucas said loudly and sounding stern, "I know you ain't drunk and insulting everyone with me around are ya?"

"No ovcourse notsheriffa," I said swaying a bit, "I just looka it because I havvven't slepd inn a while. Don't m-mind mea sheriiffa, I'm s-sober enuff."

I staggered away with my half full bottle towards the sitting room. I didn't look at them but I did like I was planning on doing. The man called Burke looked at me annoyed.

"Can I help you." He asked oily. It wasn't sounding like a question but a threat pretty much. The other two turned around looking at me annoyed.

I looked at them all unintelligibly. "Whut areu lookin' at?" I asked slurring, "Do you knowhere Villy izz?"

"Uh sir," Burke said thinking I was drunk, "I think you went the wrong-"

I tripped over my own feet a smashing the bottle of Vodka on the ground as I fell. I flickered my eyelids and closed them singing a bit, "I feeeeelike sleeeeping."

I didn't open my eyes and I breathed steadily. The bottle of Vodka, was smashed in my hand. There was a slight silence.

"That's the ignorance of this town," I heard the man say, "There are too many drunk people here and there is no order what so ever."

"I agree," One of the others said, "So exactly what is it you want done?"

"My employer likes viewing the wasteland from his tower top suite," Burke said, "Everything is perfect but like everything there is always something that kills the effect. This retched garbage of a town is an eyesore to that magnificent view. My employer wants it gone, so he and everyone else can enjoy the view of the wasteland. There is a certain aspect of this town that will actually be of use." He paused.

I kept my eyes closed and breathed steadily. "Keep going," the female said to Burke. I was being completely ignored.

"The bomb in the center of town," Burke said smoothly, "It is still active. My employer wants someone to detonate it using an electromagnetic explosive charge. A charge I so happen to have with me." My heart sank. I struggled not to move and keep my breathing steady.

"I see," the woman said, "But why not you?"

Burke didn't say anything for a while then answered, "I am a man of many things. But sadly I do not possess the skill or knowledge of doing so. That is why this is worth 2000 caps. My only question is…do you except?"

"Of course," The man said sounding pleased. My heart sank even more. They were going to blow up this town with everyone in it. Adrenaline kicked in then, the adrenaline of fear. I sprang up quickly, confusing the three in the process and bolted towards Lucas, Billy, and Jericho. I had to tell them. They looked at me shocked as I ran towards them.

"They're gonna blow up the fucking town!" I said trembling with adrenaline, "He's got the charge and everything."

"What?" Lucas said sounding just as shocked as I was, "Whoa slow down."

"Are you sure Nathan?" Billy asked like he didn't hear me correctly.

"Positive," I said trying to calm myself.

"I knew they were no good," Jericho said gruffly.

"I'll handle this," Lucas said annoyed and pulling out a Chinese assault rifle off his back.

"No sheriff," Billy said, "Let us help you. You'll be outnumbered." Billy pulled out an N99 10mm pistol.

"I'm in," Jericho said pulling out his assault rifle.

"Me too," I said pulling out both my N99's, "I know I don't live here but it's the least I can do." I was duel wielding these guns ready to shoot if necessary

Lucas nodded obviously nervous, "You sure they are planning that?"

"I'd bet my life on it," I said seriously.

"Let's go," Lucas said then turned to old man Nathan who happened to be standing there, "Nathan warn the town of these three over there, especially the sentries. I want guns pointed at them until we get them in custody."

"Yes sir," the old man said like he'd just received an honor. He ran out the door and closed it behind him.

"Nathan I've got to admit that was good acting," Lucas said as we made our way through the crowd, "If we can get them in custody do you honestly have the skill to disarm that thing?"

"Yeah," I answered. We made our way to the sitting room guns raised.

Burke saw this and pulled out an N99 10mm pistol only it had something on the end of the barrel, a silencer.

"Whoa, whoa gentlemen," He said suddenly. The other two turned around both duel wielding better versions of my own N99's. From this stand point I could deduct that they were semi-automatic 10mm guns. They had the same rectangular shaped barrel's with the automatic clip in it.

"Drop your weapons," Lucas ordered, "Or we'll pump you full of lead." I had one pistol on the two over coated people, Billy's on one, Jericho on the other, and Lucas on Burke.

"Easy now," Burke said diplomatically, "We don't want any trouble."

"Apparently you do," Lucas said, "You three trying to blow up the bomb? Not in my town."

"Whoa whoa Sheriff," Burke said, "What's all this about blowing up a bomb? We were talking about being hired arms for the Caravan Merchants."

"Don't give me that," Lucas said, "Drop your weapons. Now on the ground."

"You're making this harder than it needs to be," Burke said sounding annoyed.

"Do it," Lucas ordered.

The two people looked at us ready to shoot. "Very well," Burke said annoyed, "Do what they say."

All three slowly put their guns on the ground and looked at us annoyed. "Slide them over here," Lucas said not taking any chances. They used their feet to slide them at our feet.

"Nathan?" Lucas said gesturing me to take them. I nodded putting my two away and collected the weapons.

I backed up slowly and handed them to Gob. "Hold these for a little bit," I said. He nodded taking them.

I returned to the sheriff's side with my guns drawn. "This way," Lucas ordered the three keeping his gun trained on Burke. We escorted them outside with our guns trained on them. Everyone who was a sentry had their weapons on them.

"I see you've rallied everyone to shoot us if we try something," Burke said casually.

"You're damn right," Lucas said angrily, "I issued orders to protect the town and that's what they'll do."

"You people are fighting for a piece of shit place," Burke said annoyed as we were walking around front of the store called Crater Side Supply.

"It's home to us," Billy grumbled.

We escorted them pass the towns water plant and towards the rim of the crater. There was a building built into the wall but it was more enforced than the other buildings. So was the section of the wall. The door was barred up. Jericho opened the door and Billy stepped in keeping an eye on the three. I wasn't inside but I could hear Billy opening three rusty iron doors.

"Get inside," Lucas ordered. I followed the three inside, each going in a different cell. Lucas locked their cell doors. "I'll deal with you three in a minute." He gestured Me, Billy, and Jericho outside.

He closed the door behind us and put his weapon away. We all did the same. "Thank you guys," He said relieved, "If it weren't for you all we wouldn't have them in custody."

"If it weren't for Nathan we wouldn't have known their plan," Billy said.

"Whoa hold on there," I said relieved, "I just improvised a little bit." Seriously, the opportunity was right there in my face and the setting was right so why not? "The only thing I regret is letting that Vodka touch the inside of my mouth. I thought I swallowed gasoline."

They all laughed a bit. "Well it worked," Lucas said, "That's all that matters."

"Hang on what about their weapons?" I asked remembering I left them with Gob.

"Keep them," Lucas said generously, "If it weren't for you we wouldn't have known what they were up to. Just before these guys realize they want out of their cells and make a run for it, disarm that bomb in town."

"Will do," I said remembering my promise.

"Billy," Lucas said, "Go with him and help him if he needs it. Those crazies of atom might give him a hard time too."

"With pleasure," Billy said smiling.

"Come on Billy," I said. With that we walked towards the stairs to access my belongings. I got my tool box and we continued to the Atomic Bomb. I stepped into the puddle of irradiated water that the bomb was in and put my tool box down in it. The water came to the half way point on the actual box.

It was going to be the most intense moments of my life so far. I felt the cold metal structure of the bomb and felt around the structure of the bombs square shape. "There it is," I said as my hand stopped on a rough part. It was the access port which was right near the square part.

It was closed by a four Philips cut screws. I opened my tool box and rummaged through it for a Philips head screwdriver. I got it and quickly unscrewed the four corners of the access port lid. I gave the screws and lid to Billy who sat them on the ground near the puddle. I looked at the interior for a second.

I needed a light so I took a flashlight that I got from the vault's security officer Kendall out of my pocket. I looked in the interior thoroughly. This is where my skills as a technician and explosive research came into play. There was wiring all around the place inside and a conductor with two fission batteries attached and tubing that pumped liquid into a tank in.

I saw a small steel pipe connect the nuclear tank and to the fan, well it looked like it. I moved around to the rear and could see a small nozzle-like handle with a short pipe sticking out. That must be how they filtered the energy into it. Using the handle will help drain the energy liquid. But I couldn't do that without disarming the bomb first. I returned to the access port. I needed to stop the flow of energy from the batteries to the tank. But if I did that then the bomb would use its back up reserves and spark the chemicals for explosion. I looked at the pilot light which was connected to the batteries. I needed to cut off the energy to that thing and take it out. I shined the light on it real quick to get a better look. If I clamped something on the end tightly it couldn't ignite due to the lack of air. Okay that was obviously step one. Now the main wire that connected the conductor to the tank, if I cut it I had would have to stop the flow of the chemical based liquid from entering the tank. So I cut the tubing and cap the end with a plastic lid. The liquid would spill all over the batteries starting a chain reaction. But once the wire was cut the power would die and I could just take the fission batteries out. Without the ignition from the pilot light then the chemicals couldn't mix properly.

I didn't realize I was thinking about this for around ten minutes. "Okay," I finally said, "I'm going to need some supplies. Billy can you help me find them?"

"Sure man," Billy said pleased to help, "What do you need?"

"Many buckets," I said, "a piece of scrap around an inch, heavy duty scissors, wire cutters, and some gloves. I'm going to need a large plastic lid and wonderglue too. This is going to get messy."

"Can do," Billy said running off. When he was off I remembered what Lucas said about the Church of Atom.

"Hey you!" I heard someone say, "What are you doing to atom!"

Oh hell. Please tell that's not who I think it is. It was.

The confessor of the Church of Atom…damn it. "Uh trying to save your life," I said annoyed.

"If you tamper with atom he will invoke a fiery wrath upon you!" The Confessor said.

"If I don't he will invoke a fiery wrath on this entire town," I said annoyed.

"Atom's decision is our salvation," Confessor said.

"Salvation my ass," I said annoyed with this man, "I'd rather stay alive than die by this thing."

"Atom decides who lives and dies," The confessor said, "May you burn in hell for all your disrespect of Atom's Holy word."

"What word?" I asked defiantly, "You probably just had too much Vodka while getting irradiated near this thing. Go back to your preaching in that church up there."

"You sir will suffer Atoms Wrath for your disgrace," The confessor said angrily, "Atom will strike you down."

"Yeah?" I asked annoyed, "How's something going to strike me down when it's disarmed? Why the hell are you worshipping a freaking atomic bomb anyways? It's just an inanimate object designed to kill your ass."

"Atom will take pity on his followers," The confessor said, "I am the one who leads his followers."

"Yippy for you," I said sarcastically, "Now the Sheriff has let me save this town from a nuclear explosion so back off Confessor."

The confessor looked devastated. "Sheriff Simms is allowing you to take atom away?" He asked looking heartbroken.

I nodded. Jeez were these COA's that really into the belief of a bomb?

"I-I thought he appreciated atom," the Confessor said, "He always wanted to protect him."

"He probably wanted to make sure atom didn't betray you all," I said trying to cope with him. I hated tearing away beliefs like this but come on, it's a freaking bomb designed to wipe out lives.

The confessor looked nervously to around. "Atom betray us?" He asked himself unsurely, "That's preposterous. But…"

He shook his head defeated. "No," He said shaking, "I will not fall for his lies any longer. The Church of Atom is a fake!" With that he stormed off.

What the hell? That's all I had to say. Damn, Lucas must make quite an impression to have even the confessor of a church to let the Sheriff rule him. I began to wonder who fed them that bullshit about a god called atom, or this bomb being him. It's a belief, but a belief that was fucked up by all means necessary. I didn't want to be the one to ruin it all for them but part of me was glad they knew the truth. I paused to sit at the rim of the irradiated puddle. How could people be twisted into thinking stuff like the "power of atom" or something like that? I didn't even want to know. Another thing was this Burke person and the other two. Who would want this place destroyed and why? If the two blue over coated people were Mercenaries then they would oblige to any work.

Billy came back around five minutes later with the materials needed to get rid of the danger. "It took me a little bit," Billy said, "But I got it all. The confessor give you any trouble?"

"Yeah but I straightened him out," I said looking at my materials, "He stopped believing. Hey how much did you pay for these?"

"Uh twenty one caps," Billy said, "You got the confessor to come to his senses? Damn man he's been doing this for ten years now."

"Yeah," I said, "It's a shame he wasted his life in that crap. Let me get started on this."

He watched me work as I used an adjustable wrenched to clamp the scrap on the pilot light. I then cut the tubing in two spots removing a section. I put glue on the underside of the lid and stuck it over the tube side with the tank. "Okay," I said sighing, "Billy I'm going to need you to hand me that smaller bucket in a flash when I say so okay?"

"Yeah," Billy answered getting right next to me. I cut the main wire and quickly took out the fission batteries to drop them at my feet. "Now Billy," I said. He gave it to me and I quickly pushed the bucket in the access port under the tubing. The liquid poured inside the bucket. Just when the liquid was to the half-way point it stopped coming out completely.

"Here," I said giving the bucket to Billy, "Take it over there." I gestured to the rim of the irradiated puddle. He did as I asked. I turned back to the bomb with the wire cutters. Now I was free to cut all the wires.

"Okay," I said reviewing my training about explosives from the vault, "RBG for the first row." I snipped the Red, Blue, then Green wires. "BRG for the third row." I snipped the Blue, Red, then Green wires on the third row. "GRB for the fourth row." I snipped the Green, Red, then Blue wires for the fourth row. Now I was on the second and final row. "BGR for the second row." I snipped the Blue, Green, then finally the Red for the last row.

Whew," I said relieved, "It's disarmed."

Billy looked pleased and relieved at me. "It is?" He asked amazed, "That's cool man!"

"Yeah tell me about it," I said wiping my forehead, "Now we can filter the radiation liquid in the buckets and dump it outside the town somewhere. Oh and that liquid in there, uh, I'd like to put it in a jar. The stuff is highly explosive if mixed with the right ingredient. I might need it. Is there a radiation dump anywhere around here?"

"Yeah," Billy said, "That large water tower right outside of Springvale, It's right off the side of the cliff of the hill it's on."

"Good," I said happily, "Does this town have an extraction pump or anything?"

Billy gave me a confused expression as if trying to decide if there was one around. "Oh yeah," he said snapping his fingers, "Moira Brown had one just a second ago when I got this stuff for you. Craterside Supply is right up there." He pointed at the store we passed taking the three hostile visitors to the jail house.

"Alright," I said thankful, "Hell let's tell the Sheriff while we're up there."

"Sure," Billy said cheerfully. With that we walked up to the prison cells. Lucas just came out when we got there.

"Well Sheriff," I said happily, "It's disarmed. I just need to drain it of the nuclear wastes."

"Well I'll be," Sheriff Simms said looking real happy, "Is this true Billy?"

"It looked complicated but he solved it in just thirty minutes," Billy said happily, "Here's the wiring to prove it."

Lucas looked extremely happy now. "Damn boy," He said happily, "I can finally rest knowing the town won't blow up at night. Looks like you just foiled these three's plan. Hell yeah! Thank you Nathan."

"No problem Sheriff," I said grinning, "Just glad to be of some help."

"The house is yours," Lucas said, "Hell five hundred caps as well. You've saved this town and done it better than anyone else could have done."

"Thank you Sheriff," I said pleased.

At least tonight I too could sleep knowing that this town won't be destroyed by the Atomic Bomb. If only I had predicted what would happen later on in the day…

…..


	6. How to anger Megaton and I

Chapter 6:

How to anger Megaton and I

"_With love there is hatred, with hatred there is sorrow, with sorrow, there is casualty. Why can't I stop it?"_

With all the praise and everything I was given by the Sheriff for saving Megaton it just now dawned on me that I just saved a lot of lives. I wasn't used to doing so. Sure I had always worked as a doctor in the safety of Vault 101 but I hadn't come close to even saving someone's life medically. I only gave prescriptions and treated injuries. But right now, right now the reality of saving someone's life by disarming an Atomic Bomb had left me feeling good. It was a pleasant feeling knowing that many were grateful for my actions. I had stood there for a good five minutes taking it all in after receiving my reward by Lucas Simms, a house and five hundred caps. I had traveled back to the Brass Lantern to get something to eat. I guess the hunger was from the nerves.

But my nerves and the good feeling got even better, or worse depending on the view point. Billy and the Sheriff had praised my good work to a lot of people in town and the people told everyone else. Word about my actions traveled fast. Things were even added to how I helped stop the bomb from exploding. It wasn't like I asked for it all but I did feel like I possibly deserved the praise and I don't even like gloating.

There were several people around me while I was at the Brass Lantern. Lucas had to keep an eye on the prisoners until he could have figure out what to do with guarding them. I didn't blame him. Those two Mercenaries looked sneaky and that Burke looked shady. Thank god we stopped them before they could have killed us all. The people were still thanking me and praising me like I was some sort of saint. Jericho and Billy stayed at my side the entire time which was helpful because they had a hand in everything too.

After thirty minutes of the constant praising and thanking me, I finally got to head up to the Craterside Supply. I walked in ready to purchase the filtering pump. The inside of the store was large and spacious. There were shelves upon shelves of merchandise behind a counter with an entry point. There was a table that you could construct something on near a door. There were cabinets everywhere as well. There was a man leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He had leather armor on and had some kind of weapon with a wheel like cartilage close to the end of the barrel. I guess it was a shotgun of some sort. He eyed me down like a hawk with his dark curly hair and light brown eyes. He was not someone I'd want to cross.

I looked up at a whole in the ceiling discovering that it was a walkway up there. This place had three floors apparently. "Excuse me," I said, "Are you the shop keeper?"

"No," He said gruffly, "I'm Moira's bodyguard. Keep your hands to yourself and we won't have a problem."

"Yes sir," I said nodding.

"Buck?" I heard from somewhere, "Do we have a customer?" It was feminine and absent minded sounding.

"Yes ma'am," The man said in the same gruff voice, "A Vault dweller by the looks of him." He talked like I wasn't here at all.

I looked above me to see a woman with flaming red hair fashioned up and blue eyes. She had a blank stare on her face as well. She wore an icy blue jumpsuit with a Robco patch on the left.

"So you're the one everyone's talking about," She said finally and in a dreamy sounding voice. Her voice was like someone without emotion and high pitched. To tell you the truth she gave me chills slightly. "The man who saved Megaton, the vault dweller."

"Uh yes ma'am," I said sheepishly, "That would be me."

"Oh okay," The woman said, "My name's Moira Brown. I own this store."

"Nice to meet you ma'am," I said kindly, "My name is Nathan Warren."

"Nathan huh?" Moira said absently, "Hey I just thought of something." She walked somewhere to the left up there and appeared ten seconds later beside me and the man called Buck in the doorway. I sort of jumped.

"What is it?" I asked trying to sound polite.

"I've been working on a book," She said happily, "I'm not sure what kind yet but I think I've got an idea."

"Okay," I said blankly.

"I thought about making it a survival guide for everyone out here in the wastes," She continued, "You know so less people won't die and all that stuff. Do you think you can help me?"

Okay that caught me off guard. How do you help someone make a 'survival guide' when you've only been out in the wastes for one and a half days? I said the only thing I knew how to answer with, "uh sure."

"Great!" Moira said and I heard Buck make a soft grunt, "So for those who are not from vaults, I wanted them and myself to know what the difference is and what life is like in the vault. Can you give me an explanation?"

I didn't know what to say other than yes, it seemed like a great idea too. But how was I going to help her when I hardly knew what to do out here myself? I couldn't turn her down for three reasons. One it would be a great learning experience probably and two it would probably help others by completing it. For that I wanted my explanations to be thorough. But if this was going to happen I needed to have her trust. Hell I guess I was helping everybody today.

"Alright," I said smiling, "I'm in. But Moira can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Moira said happily.

"I'd like to help you with this book all the way," I said seriously, "I think we both know it won't happen in just a few days or two. But I'd like to help you anyways. Can I help you co-write this thing?"

Moira seemed astonished by my proposal. "Uh, uh yes," She said happily, "of course."

"Thank you Moira," I said, "I want to do this because it's a good learning experience for me and I can help the readers."

"Well that's some motivation I guess," Moira said smiling, "So you want to get started right away or do you have plans?"

I just thought about that. I did have something planned to do. In fact two other things I wanted done. Finding my dad, and draining the deactivated atomic bomb. Damn I had a full schedule today.

"You know what?" I answered, "If you could give me a notebook or something to write in, I will have that opening done by tonight. Okay? I'll have it detailed on the life inside the vault I came from and everything. I did after all pass the vault's education program with all A's."

"Okay," Moira said happily, "Please don't make me wait long though. You've got me all wound up for making the book now. Here have these complimentary notebooks, clipboard, and many lead pencils. Also here is a lot of lead for it all."

"I won't," I said hoping I could keep the promise and taking it all, "But I came in here to buy something. Billy said you had a filtration pump."

"Yes I do," Moira said pleasantly, "It'll cost thirty caps." I paid her the caps and she went back to get a vacuum like pump that was on wheels. I rolled it out the door and to the deactivated atomic bomb where Jericho and Billy were watching my tools for me.

"So you're really going to empty the thing out?" Jericho asked as I hooked up the pumps hose onto the bombs liquid entry point.

"Yeah," I said honestly, "It'll help keep the kids and any idiots from dying of radiation."

"That's a good point I guess," Jericho said agreeing with me as I put one of the fission batteries in the powering unit of the pump. I turned it on and a loud noise filled the town. I could see the liquid coming in the pumps tank through the hose.

"Hey Jericho, Billy!" I yelled over the noise, "Do you think you could give me a hand? I want to get my stuff inside my house."

Jericho gave me the thumbs up sign. Billy was cleaning out his ears then yelled, "What?"

They followed me as far as the stairs where my belongings were. I gave Billy my crate of Nuka-cola and I grabbed my backpack and slung it over my back. I asked Jericho to grab the bucket of highly explosive chemicals which he did as I grabbed my tool box. Billy lead the way to the house because I didn't know where it was. It turns out that the house was the tall one overlooking the Brass Lantern. Underneath the platform it was on half of the base was stuck in the ground. If I wasn't mistaking there was a balcony that hung over the Brass Lantern. This Balcony of course was only accessible by the house door on that side.

Billy led me and Jericho around to the front door side of the house which was on a large walkway and sitting area with three or four tables all around. I could look at the town from here. The pump was still making the noise so it was still activated. I unlocked my door and propped the door open. We made our way inside and I realized that the house was bigger than I thought. There was a large spacious room with a small kitchen in the back. There was a door that most likely led to the balcony off to the side and two doors along the back wall. There was no second floor other than walkways along the sides of the walls with a staircase leading to them. The lower floor was long than the second floor as it extended out over the Brass Lantern. There weren't many tables in the house but it was large and spacious. There was a closet door under the stairs. There were lockers and shelves lined along the walls. We sat everything down and I walked up stairs to see that there were three doors. One probably led to the first floor roof, and I looked in the others revealing two rooms. One had a bed in it and the other was a spare room with a chair, table, and shelf.

I had time for sightseeing later. Right now I just wanted to empty that bomb of the liquid. We exited my house and I locked the door behind me. The pump was full and I turned it off once we got back.

"Whew thank you," I heard Jenny say, "That thing's loud as hell. What are you three doing?" She was still behind her counter cooking something.

"Uh emptying out the Atomic Bomb," Billy said, "Nathan said it would keep people from getting Radiation poisoning."

"Oh," Jenny said understandingly, "It would help keep the children safe I guess."

"My thoughts exactly," I muttered as I unhooked the hose then said, "Hey so who wants to help me get this thing to the radiation dump?"

"I'm in," Jericho said looking bored, "I need to get off my butt any ways."

"Cool," I said thankful, "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," Jericho said, "Coming Billy?"

"Nah," Billy responded, "It's about time for lunch. I always eat with Maggie."

"Yeah I know," Jericho said dully, "Just thought you'd want to come on out with us." With that me and Jericho slowly made our way up the stairs with the pump and out the town Gates. Stockholm opened the barrier for us. We headed towards the Water tower.

…

_Burke, Ebony, and Ivory_

I sit here in this fucking cell that joke of a cowboy had locked us in. I sat on the chair leaning back in it balancing it on two legs and using the wall as support keeping my arms folded. Ebony and Mister Burke were in cells across from mine. The so called cowboy sheriff had left us alone finally.

"Burke," I said calmly, "I hope you plan on making us earn those caps. The bomb was disarmed."

"Yes I'm quite aware of that," Burke said sighing annoyed with our predicament, "My employer will not let these backward people get away with this. He and I will need your services yes. For you to earn the first five hundred caps you have to kill that imbecile Nathan. We'll discuss the rest later."

"Our weapons have been confiscated," Ebony said calmly, "We cannot kill anyone without breaking out first and going back to camp. Even so we only have silenced N99's there, a few rations and equipment, and our armor."

"Don't worry," I said calmly, "When night fall comes, we'll get out. We always have a backup plan when it comes to situations like this. And this Nathan kid, he was clever on this one. Taking him for a simple drunk was a mistake on our part."

"Aw come on Ivory," Burke said calmly, "You give the kid too much credit. He is just some lowlife out of a Vault."

I sighed, a little annoyed with Burke even if he was right about the kid being out of a vault it didn't change the fact he tricked us.

"I know where he's from," I said, "But by my standards the kid performed well with Spec Ops tactics. We were in a bar. He used that to his advantage to set the mood of his plan. He used a bottle of Vodka to act like he was drunk and then eavesdropped on us while we thought he had knocked himself out. The kid must be smart because disarming a prewar bomb is no easy thing."

That seemed to give Burke a different shade of thought. "Perhaps," He said considerately, "you are correct."

….

_Nathan and Jericho_

We were on our second and final trip out to the dumps. "Hey Jericho?" I asked as we walked up to the base of the water towers cliff.

"Yeah?" He responded with his assault rifle out.

"Have you ever been out in the wastes before?" I asked rolling the pump to the edge of the dump.

"Yeah," He said shortly, "I'm a retired Raider kid. They left me behind a while back after a job. I decided to leave that part of my life behind." He spoke like an old man but he was around his forties.

I didn't question him right away. I turned on the pump and the loud noise filled the air. The pump blew out all the liquid gathered. Just standing near the dumps I could feel the radiations heat. I kept an eye on my Pipboy's Geiger counter too. I was getting a slight dose of one Rad per second. When the pump was done blowing out the radioactive liquid I turned it off.

"Well did you ever miss any of it?" I asked. From what I heard about Raiders, it wasn't pleasant.

Jericho sighed pulling out a pack of cigarettes. "The fight for survival and action yeah," He said lighting his cigarette, "The rape, murder, torturing, and robbing of innocents no. I've done things that give me nightmares to this day. You wouldn't believe half the shit I did, I don't ever want to follow that path again Nathan, it's disturbing. But I'll tell you what. Fighting to live in gang wars was something I could do all day. I don't know why but I love a good shoot out."

At least he was sincere about it all. I now knew why Jericho was so gruff. He can't forgive himself for everything he done during his life. He just stood there smoking his cigarette assault rifle in one had his back turned to me and looking out at the destroyed bridge. He looked like an outlaw in one of those movies I watched in the vault, a drifter if you compare it. "Well," I said rolling the hose up and putting it on the pumps rack, "If out here is how you're describing it, it looks like I'm going to be in some fire fights real soon."

Jericho turned to look back at me. "Why do you say that?" Jericho asked.

"I'm probably going on a long ass journey," I said sighing, "My dad is out there somewhere. Moriorty has to know where he went. He could be in that city over there for all I know."

"That city is a hellhole," Jericho said warningly, "You think it was bad your first days out here, that place is worse."

"Oh I can imagine," I said sighing, "But I can't help where I have to go to find him, guns a blazing or not."

Jericho gave me a look with his cigarette limp in his mouth. It was like he was trying to think on something. "We better get back," I said pulling the pump along with me towards Megaton. He followed behind me silently. We arrived back around 1:30 in the afternoon.

"I'm heading to the Brass Lantern," Jericho said, "I'm a bit hungry. See you later kid." He walked off down the stairs as I rolled the pump to and inside my house. I pulled it next the door and walked up the stairs. I was a bit exhausted so I flopped on the bed in my room tired.

The events of today and the day before had run through my mind. Escaping the Vault, Sitting out in Springvale for a few hours, Lucky finding me, Getting in a fight at the Saloon, disarming a bomb and foiling a bunch of Mercenaries plans. Everything that was happening around me I tried my best to keep under control. Daydreaming for a few minutes had got the best of me. I decided to explore my new home more thoroughly. I went in the kitchen which there was shelves along the back wall a refrigerator and a sink. Just to push my luck I decided to check the refrigerator for food or to see if it was even on. It had no food and it was off. I slid it to the left and checked the side of its service lid. It needed a fission battery to power it, the one it had now was shot. I returned to my tool box and retrieved the fission battery I got from the atomic bomb.

I replaced the old one and the refrigerator turned on. That was simple enough. I stocked it with my Nuka-cola bottles and put the crate on one of the shelves. I walked out into the main room to see something a strange machine. I walked up to it and looked at it. There were twenty small circular platforms that were set up like a doll collectors dream. But the stand had a silverish base and a design on the front that said "Vault-tech bobble heads." I remembered that my dad had a Vault-tech bubblehead, one that I brought with me. I pulled out the bobble head which was holding a syringe. I read the words engraved on the bottom: _The smart man knows bandages only hide his wounds._

I sat it on one of the circular pads and looked around the room some more. My gaze fell on the two doors this time. One turned out to be a bathroom and the other was a small room around the same size but instead had a deactivated Type II Mister Handy propped on its arms on the floor.

I turned it on by the switch on its large spherical body. The switch was in a small compartment. The robot suddenly jumped to life literally by having its hover jet boost it in the air. Its arms folded out revealing its saw, torcher, and free hand.

"Allow me to introduce myself sir," The robot said, "I am Wadsworth, I am designed to be the houses owner butler and I will obey anything you say."

I nodded amazed. "So you're my butler huh?" I asked making sure I heard that right.

"Yes sir," Wadsworth said, "It's in my programming to obey you."

"Very well," I said, "What are your functions?"

"I have water collectors and can purify it," he said, "I am programmed to tell jokes, give diagnostics on this home, Clean it, be on guard, other functions you wish me to perform."

"Not bad," I said impressed, "Well I don't have any need for you now. If you want to get rid of the dust in the house you can but avoid that bucket over there." It would be disastrous if his hover jet mechanism caught the chemicals on fire due to the high speed air.

"With pleasure master," He said respectively, "I'm on it now." With that Wadsworth began float around using his torcher mechanism to suck up the dust.

I continued to explore my home which involved me going out on the balcony. The Balcony overlooked the center of town. From here I had to lean over the railing to see the roof of the Brass Lantern. I turned around to see stairs that lead to the roof of my first floor. I walked up it to see a table and a chair along with another door. I walked in to be on the walk way of the second floor. Wadsworth was already on this floor cleaning the dust.

I slowly became conscious of the fact that I would never be able to return back to Vault 101 and in retaliation I decided to unpack my stuff and place everything in the lockers and on the shelves. I set the bucket of explosive chemicals in the closet and my clothes in the lockers. I sat my ammo and weaponry on my shelf, the holodisks sat on the shelves as well. Out of boredom I decided to count out my caps. Thirty minutes later I had counted 804 caps.

I guess this is where I finally remembered something, Moriarty. It was the afternoon alright and he was due to be in right now. I got up gathered my caps, backpack, and a pistol with ammo ready to head on over to the Saloon. The town was busy of course all enjoying the day I guess. I walked into the Saloon, it wasn't as full as normally but there was a new person behind the counter.

He had grayish white hair, a beard, and mustache and green eyes. He wore a black vest like overcoat, a white shirt under it, black pants, boots, and gauntlet like gloves. He had a stern look on his face.

He was talking to Gob. "How much money did yea get while I was gone?" He asked. He was definitely Irish.

"Uh 745 caps sir," Gob grumbled.

"Ah excellent," Moriarty said, "Well fine then I'll be in my office then." With that he started to walk in the back room.

The red haired woman looked at me then turned to Moriarty "Hey boss," She asked, "Where did you go with that man?"

"What business is it of ya?" Moriarty demanded, "Haven't you tuned in on the Radio Nova?"

"The signal's shit Moriarty," The woman called Nova said, "You left too early to hear Gob banging on the thing."

"Fine then," Moriarty said clearly irritated, "Well then until we get a decent signal bitch, you and zombie boy over here will never know."

Nova's lower jaw clenched in anger as Moriarty went in the office. She shook her head slowly but angrily. She walked towards me with a fast pace.

"Sorry kid," Nova said sighing, "Me and Gob have been coming up with a way to get information out of that fucking Leprechaun asshole for you. But since he was real 'sweet' about it I'm just going to slip you some information right now."

"Okay?" I said not knowing what to say. Moriarty really was an asshole.

"He has a terminal in the back he types everything on it, I mean everything," She said looking back to make sure Moriarty didn't come out yet, "He changed his password but I bet you could hack that thing in order to get what you want. There's a key to the office door under the trash can near it outside. Don't feel bad about doing anything though, if you talk to him about it he'll just screw you over."

"I see," I said cautiously, "Let me try it my way first. If it doesn't happen I'll try it your way."

"Okay hon," Nova said sighing, "But don't say I didn't warn you if he tries something fucked up."

"I'll say the opposite," I responded. I immediately got an idea. "Can you tell me his first name?"

"Colin, why?" She asked.

I didn't say anything I just sat down at the bar. "Hey Gob," I said remembering I left my weapons with him, "You still got my weaponry?"

"Yeah," Gob said pulling out four SMG's and a silenced pistol. I put them in my backpack.

"I just came in got it?" I asked.

"Done," Gob said, "Moriarty?"

"Yep," I said simply.

"Hey boss," Gob called, "Someone's here to see ya."

"Who is it?" I heard Moriarty yell from the back.

"The savior of the town," Nova answered theatrically. I couldn't help but smirk slightly.

Colin walked out five seconds later looking annoyed. "Hello Colin," I said simply.

"So you're the one who saved my town huh?" Colin asked sounding annoyed, "The one who disarmed that freaking bomb and had the three who wanted to blow it up locked up in old cowboy's jail huh?" I mentally noted him saying it was his town and his nickname for Lucas.

"That would be me," I said simply.

"Well don't go strutting around like you deserve special treatment you bigot," Colin said annoyed, "That ain't gonna get you nowhere in here. You might as well walk out that door and never come back."

Okay now I was annoyed. "You know what," I said annoyance melting into my tone, "I can see having manners wouldn't do me any good so I'll be blunt. You know where my dad is and I want to know. You either tell me or I get really pissed and get the information myself. From what I've heard your complete asshole which is the opposite of what my father told me growing up. So what's it going to be?" I added the fact that my dad told me about him to spruce things up.

Moriarty looked at me like I was an army facing him alone.

"Uh boss," Gob said cautiously, "Don't mess with the kid, He's got skill in shit that you wouldn't even dream of." Of course Gob wouldn't know that I just practiced with everything I was good at growing up.

"You're Nathan Warren?" He asked with a complete change of tone, "I haven't seen you since you were a baby!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked slightly confused.

"Didn't your dad tell ya?" Moriarty said, "You and him were tryin' to get in that Vault at Springvale when ye were born."

"I was born in the Vault," I said still confused.

"No ye weren't," Colin said, "Oh that's right! I heard about the brainwashin' that goes on down in there. Ye pa told me, _you are born in the vault, you die in the vault, no one ever enters and no one ever leaves. _That's a load of Brahmin shit. Ye pa told me 'bout that one. He told me it was all a lie to make sure no one gets any funny ideas."

"Well that one failed miserably," I said a bit angry with dad, "The thing is I'm looking for him. He left me there. I had to fight my way out of there. I know you've been with him this entire time he was out, so do you know where he is?"

Colin looked at me quizzically. "I do know where he's at," Colin said simply, "But every piece of information has a price. I'll tell ye for five hundred caps."

I tensed up annoyed with him finally. Yep, there was no doubt in my mind. This guy was an asshole. I'm guessing Nova's plan was the way to go.

"You know what?" I asked not even concerning myself with this guy, "This is a waste of time. I'll find him my own way."

"And how's that?" Colin said smugly, "By beating the shit out of me? By stealing from me. If you do kid, I'll have the entire town turned against you. Hell I'll even fill a contract out on you. You just pissed me off."

My jaw clenched. "Threatening me won't get you anywhere," I said trying to control my temper, "You better watch who you're talking to like that. You'll meet someone one of these days who will straighten your ass out."

"Is that a threat?" Moriarty demanded standing up.

"A threat I'll turn into a promise if you keeping fucking with me you old bastard," I said simply, "and you turning the town against me? I hate to break it to you Colin but everyone I talk to is out for your blood. Well at least the good people around here are. So try something Moriarty, I'll put your ass on the ground where it belongs."

"Why you little prick," Moriarty said pulling out an N99. I pulled mine out and shot his out his hand still sitting in the chair casually. Truth be told, it was something that I couldn't explain. Moriarty and time slowed down in an instant. Moriarty looked at me shocked as if he couldn't register what just happened.

"Now you want piss me off you fucking Leprechaun?" I said fuming slightly, "I've been through enough in one day to last me a lifetime. I sure as hell don't need you fucking my day up for stupid shit just because your greedy ass can't deal with someone who just did a service to the town and your sorry ass. Now I'm being generous and I won't kill you. That's not how I deal with things. But you ever pull a gun on me again. We'll have more than words. I'll shoot your ass. The real leader of this town probbaly wouldn't mind it at all. Sheriff Lucas Simms is the one who doesn't trust you. I go by his word because so far he hasn't pulled a gun on me and threatened to kill me yet. So I'll be around Moriarty. Remember that."

I got up and walked casually out the Saloon door.

….

_Nova_

"We told you boss," I said with a smug expression, "The kid's got skill. He took on an experienced drunk Wastelander with ease and definitely has respect from most the town. If you piss him off he'll come down hard on you."

"Yeah," Gob said smugly, "Just him shooting that pistol out your hand should clarify that."

Colin looked at me and then at Gob in fury. "Ah shut up you fucking pricks," He said moving to his office and pushing Gob in the process, "and get back to work."

I giggled slightly at the situation. That new guy Nathan was…interesting.

….

_Nathan_

I was sitting in my house on the bed leaning against the wall frustrated as hell because of Moriarty. Oh I'd love to go in and beat the shit out of him, but that was because he pissed me off. I can't believe my dad was involved with this guy. What the hell was happening to him? Why would he do this shit to me and leave me all alone? I threw a baseball that had been lying on my desk when I moved in at the wall out of frustration. I couldn't afford to think of the bad crap going on in my life, I had to keep trying to find a positive side, even...even if it meant putting my main goal aside temporarily so I didn't drive myself insane. That was apparently easy when things built up.

But what could keep me so freaking calm right now? I rubbed the temples of my head. Then it came to me. I owed Moira Brown a detailed explanation. I got out one of the three notebooks and a pencil. I got started on it immediately.

I wrote:

_Life in the Vault-_

_Life in the Vault is indeed different from out in the wasteland. For starters Vaults were originally built as Fallout Shelters for the Great War's nuclear bombs. There are currently 122 known vaults on Post War American soil. All vaults had different customs. They were all issued different technological supplies that would let most thrive and others would fend for themselves. The Vaults themselves were commissioned by the Prewar United States Government in the program called "Project Safe house."_

_Vault 101 which is located in the Capital Wasteland near the prewar Springvale settlement is the basis for this explanation. Vault 101's standard technology included standard of living gear. This included Vault-Tec integration systems such as dust deposition emitters that sucks up dust, basic food sanitizers and water purifiers that kept the vault's supply pure and not radiated, and several lights that could imitate sunlight without the major sun poisoning or burn. There were Type II Mister Handy's that were service robots._

_Other Vault Tec equipment included inbuilt operational systems that dealt with food other than the purifiers and sanitizers that could keep it all from being irradiated. There were large systems that could allow fruit and vegetables to grow called the Greenhouse. Meat is probably an issue out in the waste sometimes, however Vault Tec issued Vault 101 with a V- C.M.D MI device. This stands for Vault-Tec – Culinary Meat Duplication Mark One device. It basically clones meat that could be served on a daily basis. Learning the blueprints of construction, I would recommend basic electronic manuals._

_Vault 101 was protected from a nuclear fallout by advanced doors that weigh ten tons and in the shape of a Cog. All though old in time wise, it was an effective and highly advanced way by using Vault Tec power generators to utilize the sheer power of this protection system. Other Doors were motion activated or panel activated._

_To simulate prewar seasonal weather, there were Vault Tec implants that would allow inhabitants to experience it all. With the lighting this all let residents experience four seasonal weather patterns of prewar times._

I stopped to read what I had written so far. Holy crap I was descriptive, exactly the way I wanted it. But I knew I wouldn't be able to do this in one night. I had only stated the Technology and how many vaults there were out there. I tapped my chin with my index finger thinking. Then I went over my thoughts again. I wrote _Part I _over the first paragraph and _Technology _over the second. If I wanted to tell people what it was like down there, then I would have to be descriptive. I walked over to the Crater side Supply and had a word with Moira.

"I'm just not going to be able to finish it all in one day," I said to her apologetically, "Being descriptive is a bit long. I only got to what kind of Technology we have down there. If you want this thing to be good I need more time."

"Oh no problem," Moira said grinning, "I know it must be a bit hard trying to get everything down. Take as long as you need, but not too long."

"Alright," I said relieved, "I'll catch you later then." I walked out the store and towards the Brass Lantern where Billy, Stockholm, and Jericho were. They were sitting there enjoying some of Jenny's cooking. I sat next to them noticing it was almost 10:00 at night.

"Hey man," Billy greeted me, "What's up?"

"Nothing much," I said yawning, "Just running around. Figured I'd get something to eat before going to bed."

"Ah there's nothing wrong with that," Billy said cheerfully. Stockholm who was drinking some beer nodded and raised his as if toasting.

"So what will it be bud?" Jenny asked.

"Uh the Salsbury Steak?" I asked.

"Twelve caps," Jenny said. I gave her the caps and she began to prepare the food.

"Evening Sheriff," I heard Jericho say, "Got any of them to talk yet?" I knew of course he was talking about the three prisoners. I turned around to see Lucas sitting next to Jericho.

"No," said a troubled Lucas, "It's like trying to get a bunch of Brahmin to jump up and down on a boulder. They won't talk for anything." The sheriff sighed like he was fed up with something and drank some water out a water bottle.

"Ah don't worry sheriff," Billy said trying to cheer him up, "They'll crack eventually."

Lucas didn't say anything. He just drank another sip of his water. Finally after a few more swallows he said something.

"Yeah I guess so," He said sighing, "But right now I've got Thomas guardin-"

An explosion erupted and filled the town from behind the Crater Side Supply. It caused a chain reaction of panic and everyone closer to it taking cover somehow. The Brahmin mooed at fleeing from the explosion in panic as well. I protected my face with my arm and then looked at the sight.

"Ah shit," Jericho said knowing what just happened. We all knew.

"Damn it," Lucas said getting up as he slapped his palm on the counter top. I got up first running towards the platform ramp. I could hear the others behind me.

We all slid to a halt at the burnt metal rubble of the once was jail area. There was someone on the ground under a piece that was close to a fire. I ran over to him pulling out my N99. I quickly looked around like the others did for the three fugitives. I put my gun down real quick and moved the metal sheet from over the man kneeling down.

"Sheriff!" I yelled waving him over.

Lucas turned towards me keeping his gun down in a patrolling way and ran towards me. "That's Thomas," He said looking down at him then around once more.

The man called Thomas coughed. "I tried Sheriff," He coughed, "I tried. They somehow got out their cells, took my assault rifle, and blew up the jail." He coughed up blood. I then realized this man had been shot.

"Oh my…damn," Billy said looking at the wound, "Nathan can you help him?"

"Another prepared doctor can," I said, "Doesn't this town have a doctor?"

"Yeah," Lucas said then turned two settlers who followed us here, "You two get him to Doc Church's clinic."

They nodded, eased Thomas on their shoulders and made their way down the ramp. We heard another gunshot coming from the entrance of Megaton.

"They're this way," Stockholm yelled waving us over to his direction. We all ran behind him with guns out and ready to fire. We stopped in front of Lucas' house door to see a figure up on the sentry catwalk. Harden was standing inside the Sheriff's home with the door open.

"Harden get inside," Lucas said, "It's too dangerous right now."

Harden closed the door and we looked back at the catwalk. The figure fell but another was still there. It shot a round off at us. We all scattered firing back. But the figure was too fast for us. It jumped over the railing pressing something on a panel. Stockholm and Lucas stayed with the one who fell. It landed somewhere outside the gates and inside the barrier. It had to be one of the Mercenaries. We all ran through the gates but the barriers were closing. All three silhouettes were running towards Springvale. Me, Jericho, and three Megaton settlers had made it out. Billy was left on the inside of the barrier with four more.

"Keep going!" I heard Billy yell from behind us stuck behind the barrier. I could hear laser rounds firing up ahead. We caught up to Deputy Wield who was walking as fast as his robotic legs would let him firing off laser rounds at the fleeing trio. We ran towards the back of the ruined houses that was along the road towards Megaton. Deputy Wield halted his fire and was walking the same speed behind us. Then gun firing was firing at us behind a ruined car. We all got into cover behind old dumpsters, rubble, and leftover fire places.

Jericho was firing his assault rifle from a dumpster in the alley way and the others were shooting at the car. I shot a few rounds at the car but I knew I couldn't do anything about the situation I was in. We were all shooting at people who pretty much blended in with the darkness around them because of their clothing. We didn't know their exact location but apparently they knew where we were. They could be behind another vehicle as well. They stopped firing.

We stopped as well. Jericho looked out from behind his cover. "Damn they're running again," He yelled, "Let's go."

We all bolted towards the vehicle but before we got close something happened. The car blew up and was replaced with a miniature mushroom explosion. I went flying back high up in the air and landed on a beam of one of the houses. I was about to slip off but I grabbed on the beam hanging by my hands. The heat of the radiation swept over me as I struggled to hold on. I looked around quickly to see one of the Megaton settlers land on the ground head first with a sickening crack. The beam broke and I went falling down to the ground that had rubble on it. I felt the air escape my body as I landed with a thud.

"Nathan!" I heard Jericho yell from the other side of what were the remains of a fireplace. I struggled to look his way to see him holding his side and stumbling towards me. I could hear creaking under me and something snapped. _Ah shit._

"Jericho wait!" I gasped but it was too late. I fell down into a dark pit. My back pack got caught on a hanging piece of metal rod. I hung there gasping. Everything was darker than the above ground.

"Nathan are you alright?" Jericho yelled from six feet above me.

I grunted and sighed at the same time in frustration. "Yeah," I said annoyed at my predicament, "What about you and the others?"

"I'm fine," Jericho said coughing, "A bit banged up but I'm good."

"Alright," I said rubbing my face with one of my hands, "Go check the others."

"I'll be right back," Jericho said getting up and leaving from the rim of the hole. I looked around my small area. The hole wasn't clammy like I was expecting. It was rough and made of stone. I was in something but it wasn't a hole. I moved my arm in an awkward position to reach for a pouch on my backpack. I got my flashlight out but I felt my N99 fall out the tip of my pocket. As it hit the bottom of this thing I heard a gunshot which made me flinch slightly.

It must have misfired. I turned on my flash light and looked around my area once again only this time with light. I was definitely in a vent of some kind. I looked down to see the ground of a metal like place.

I heard Jericho above me. "You still there?" I heard him say.

"Yeah," I said uncomfortably, "He did you know of a room down below me?"

"No," Jericho answered, "Why?"

"Cause there is one," I said struggling to move even a bit, "Are the others okay?"

"One died and the other two are injured badly," Jericho said, "I sent Deputy Wield back to Megaton to get Billy and the others."

"That's great," I said kind of sarcastic, "Really great. You know this whole situation is fucked up."

"Yeah I know," Jericho said, "They got away too. This is really fucked up."

"You're telling me," I said grunting, "You're not the one dangling helplessly in a vent underground by yourself are you?"

"Well when you put it that way," Jericho said understanding what I meant.

"Ugh," I said yawning, "This is messed up on so many levels. I've gotta get down from here."

"Don't you mean up here?" Jericho said. I just looked up at him with a blank expression. "Sorry not helping," he responded.

I started working my arms free and I fell but caught another rod. I used my feet trying to gain a bit of balance on the wall. I tried to work my bag loose and it went tumbling down along with my flashlight. I heard my flashlight hit the ground hard.

I dropped down to land in the dark room. I rolled a bit to avoid the major damage of the fall. I got up and felt around for my flashlight. It was pitch black but I felt around for it still. I found it. I picked it up and clicked the button. It didn't turn on. I slammed the end into my palm but it just flickered. I got a glimpse of my surrounding but couldn't make out anything. It wasn't going to work. I would have to work on it at home or something. I slipped it in my pocket and turned on my Pipboy light.

I yelled at the sight that had just come to me. A freaking walking zombie looking thing was standing so close it was only a finger length to me. It's eyes were white, reflecting off my light and its jaws were muscular but bare with rotting skin. I didn't have time to observe it any further because it let out a horrible shriek and pounced on me. I found myself on my back with it trying to claw me with its long arms with sharp nails. I stopped it from doing so by grabbing onto its elbows and keep it off me. It snapped its jaws violently and viciously at me.

I found a way to get my foot at its stomach and pushed it off me and I rolled over towards a shining object, my gun. I went to fire but it slapped it out my hand. I punched the thing in its face and pushed it off again with my foot. I went for my gun again and this time I shot it in the arm. It flinched for a second but shrieked again and bounded towards me once more. I got my bearings correct this time and shot it in the head. With two bullet holes in the head it stopped where it was. Greenish blood poured from its head as it looked at me unintelligibly. It collapsed falling over on its side.

I sighed and grunted at the same time relieved at my close encounter. I got up on my feet and looked around. Another one was walking hunched over my way from a long hall. I aimed and shot it as well. I slung my backpack on and looked around. I was at the very end of a sewer, I knew that because there was nothing but irradiated water on the ground and two sides.

I continued down the sewer looking for a ladder to the surface. There was not a ladder but a door at the end of the sewer on the left side. I opened the door and kept to the side of the frame. I didn't want anything surprising me here. I couldn't see anything because of the Pipboy's light range, but I did hear music. It was coming from behind me. I looked behind me to see a familiar floating robotic sphere. It was one of those strange robots again. It was playing "America the Beautiful" as it floated towards me. It halted still floating and turned its radio like front at me. Its music turned down into a soft noise. It didn't move for the longest time.

Getting anxious to keep moving I asked it something. "Do you have a light?" I asked it. My eyes were blinded by its high beam light. "Okay," I said rubbing my eyes, "Thanks. Now if you want out follow me and keep that light activated."

I walked in the door and down a hall that had old metal pipes and machinery lined up around the wall. As I walked I wondered why this strange robot would find its way down here with me. It was weird. We both came up on a skeleton that was slouched over on the ground with a familiar weapon which was a combat shotgun. There were three boxes of shotgun shells and two books next it.

"Whoa," I said surprised of my luck, "About time my luck changed." I put my pistol away and picked up the combat shotgun and checked out its features. It wasn't in bad condition but wasn't in good condition either. I checked the circular chamber which had ten shotgun shells in it. I checked the boxes of shotgun shells to discover there were twenty-four shells in them all. I put them in my backpack and looked at the two books. One was titled, "_Guide to maintaining and operating your shotgun_" and the other was titled, "_Pugilism Illustrated: Volume I_."

Pugilism was a fancy term for boxing. I put them in my backpack as well. I continued on down the hallway with the robot floating behind me. We made our way down it into a room that had machinery everywhere. Nothing was of value though, it was all prewar stuff. There was a rusty door at the end of this door. I struggled to turn the door wheel try to open it. It was unlocked so I tried pulling it to open the door. I got it about an inch open when the door wheel broke off and I almost stumbled to the ground.

"Damn," I muttered tossing the wheel to the ground. The robot rotated in midair looking around. I walked over to the machinery to look for anything I could pry open the door with. I found a wrench and used it to open the door a little more. I used my hands to pull it open wide open. The robot entered before me this time. It had its light activated still. Several Radroaches moved out the way of it clicking their mouths rapidly. I followed behind the robot ignoring the Radroaches. We were in another room now.

This room had nothing of interest except a desk an old terminal that had the screen missing. I looked in the desk for anything of use. There was a paper written note inside. I read it:

_I've been down here for three years now. My food and water supply is running low. What is more is that creatures have been finding their way in. They walk like a man but are disgusting and look like zombies. They killed my dog. I hope they don't find a way to get to me. A shotgun with a few shells won't last me long. If only I was accepted into that Vault a long time ago. I hope I can survive long enough down here until someone comes for me. This radiation sickness is killing me….slowly._

That was it. I looked around to see the skeleton of an animal and another deformed skeleton. I didn't see anything else in the desk except junk. But closer inspection I found two grenades under it which was known as a Frag Grenade. The robot suddenly started shooting an orange colored laser beam at the Radroaches. I ignored it and I didn't see anything else but another door. This one was activated by a panel though. I pressed the green button and the door opened. The door slide sideways that revealed another sewer like place. Inside was another of the same type of robot floating over a strange pile of junk. I looked around to see a ladder leading up to the surface and a manhole. I climbed up the ladder to open the manhole but it was stuck. I beat on it trying to open it up. Nothing happened.

I had another idea so I got down and pulled out my shotgun. I shot up at the man hole and it blew off with a loud bang. I heard it land on the road too. "Ha," I said pleased with the result. But before I could climb up the ladder both robots floated up in front of it and up towards the surface. Something over where the second robot was floating earlier reflected off my Pipboy light. Curiosity overwhelmed me so I went to go look at this junk. I found out that this pile wasn't junk at all. It was some kind of armor. This armor was large and bulky too. It was pitch black and had a helmet as well.

It looked too heavy for anyone to use but I could tell it had high tech joints and armoring. The chest and abdomen were ready made so you could try to be flexible. The shoulders were guarded by pointed plates and arms. The joints all had plates on them as well. The helmet was definitely high tech. The facial area had dark yellowish orange lenses and grooves around it. There was what looked like a breathing mouth piece embedded in a large lower facial piece that wrapped around the cheek area. Everything wrapped around the head and had inserts for several hoses that attached to the shoulder tendon areas of the armor. There were pointed parts that looked like animal ear styled metal protruding from the areas for the hoses. The only smooth looking spot was the crown of the helmet. It was a work of art no doubt. If it was one thing I learned out here in the wasteland it was that scavenging is often the only way to survive. Who say's I can't enjoy the opportunity? This strange armor was mine.

I dragged it towards the ladder. There was an unused chain next to the ladder. I put the helmet in my backpack and wrapped the chain around the waist of the armor and pulled it up behind me as I went up. I climbed out half way.

"There you are kid," I heard Jericho's voice, "Here." He gave me a hand up and I pulled the armor up. "What do you got there?"

"Some kind of armor I found," I responded but then I remembered why we were out here, "Where are they?"

"Gone," Jericho said disappointed, "They disappeared after you fell. Sorry man."

"Shit," I breathed disappointed as well, "Well. There's no sense hanging around out here. Where are the others?"

"Billy's group escorted them back to Megaton," Jericho said, "Deputy Wield survived the explosion too. He's back at his post. One of those strange robots went in that hole after I heard gunshots. What was down there?"

"Some kind of fucked up looking Zombie," I said, "Scared the shit out of me. They weren't like Gob either. These things howled at me so I howled back with a gun."

"Ah," Jericho said, "Those were feral ghouls. Damn things have no brain really. They just have two instincts, kill and eat. They don't bother the normal ghouls though. Strange thing actually, so you need help carrying that armor?"

"Please," I remarked. We were halfway back to Megaton when Jericho said something.

"You know," He said, "Besides the fact that you almost died down there probably, that was kind of funny you just stuck in that position. You found humor in your situation didn't you?"

"Yeah," I said, "Kind of. It made me feel better when I found a shotgun, some ammo, and this huge hunk of armor though. But yeah now that you mention it, it was kind of funny."

We made it back and pretty much everyone was outside helping cleaning the wreckage left by the three escapees. Me and Jericho put the armor on the floor in my house. I put my backpack down and went back outside. Everyone was mourning over the two we lost. I questioned Sheriff Simms on this.

"Gayle died of Internal bleeding," He said lowly, "If only that vehicle hadn't exploded. We wouldn't have lost two good people in this world, damn it, Gayle and Erin" He shook his head eyes shut. "Damn! Why did this have to happen? Those damn Merc's, I just want to shoot them all in the face." He didn't sound like someone my age after they had lost someone close to them from someone killing them. He sounded like a soldier, one that would fight for any kind of freedom.

I couldn't help but feel somehow responsible. They were a part of my group. My fucking group! I was smarter than I had acted. I should've stopped us from proceeding. This was messed up, worse than me falling in a hole. I couldn't help it, two people died because I couldn't act quick enough to stop us. I had to do something. I had to find a way to make amends, somehow. I couldn't let myself forget this. Two people I didn't even know, who helped me try and bring the convicts back, dead. _Damn..._

…


	7. Raider's and their intentions

Chapter 7: Raiders and their Intentions

"_How do you keep yourself occupied when someone you love is missing? Just go with the flow."_

Two days had passed since the plot of Megaton's destruction was foiled. It was two days ago that I realized I had failed to bring the three plotters back. So what did I do in those two days? Sit on my butt and finished the opening segment of the Wasteland Survival Guide. Not to mention I spent more time cleaning up my brand new armor and helmet and hanging it up by three clamps on the back of it with chains. I tried it on but to no avail. The armor was heavy and would not budge. I had to get Jericho to take it off.

Since wearing the armor failed miserably, I decided to work out. I did two hundred squats, crunches, pull-ups, and push-ups both days; anything to stay in shape and keep my morale up. There was nothing more I could do. I wanted to leave Megaton for a little while but I had no clue to where I would travel. The only good thing from the entire experience involving the three plotters was the fact I collected a bulky set of armor, a shotgun and ammo for it, and a few instruction books that would increase my knowledge of whatever their pages held.

So I read _Pugilism Illustrated _first. The first few pages weren't what I had expected. There were instructions for setting up boxing equipment. One of the most prominent sets was the punching bag. It showed the use for it and how to make one. I found the materials at the Crater side supply store. Using bags of sand, nylon fabric, and three chains I made a punching bag and hung it near the lockers next to the door. So I started to read the book. It was simple enough really. It had images and descriptions of showing the reader how to perform different swings without pulling a muscle or something similar. I started practicing by punching the punching bag after I took my jumpsuit off with the shirt underneath and put on a pair of pants. But after researching a few swings in the book it turns out that there were no more. The hand to hand techniques were simple jabs and hooks. I just kept practicing this on the punching bag. There was a knock on my door.

"Wadsworth," I ordered my powered down Mister Handy, "Get the door." I jabbed at the bag rapidly. The robot in a deactivated state sprang to life with its hover jet pump roaring to life. It was in the closet I found it in.

"Certainly sir!" He responded and hovered towards the door and pulled it open with his robotic hand. In the door way was Lucas. "Hello Sheriff Simms," Wadsworth declared, "Do you want to speak with my Master?"

"Please," Lucas confirmed.

"Let him in," I said practicing hooks now. I swung from the left as hard as I could.

Wadsworth hovered back to let Lucas in. Lucas took off his hat and looked at me. "Good morning Nathan," He greeted as Wadsworth closed the door behind him, "Is this a bad time?"

"Nope," I said taking a breather, "Wadsworth, standby."

"Yes Master," Wadsworth said hovering over to his storage closet. He went into a deactivated state.

"Using him well I see," Lucas said, "Is he any use?"

"Yeah," I said wiping my brow, "He helps me out a lot. So, what's up sheriff?"

"I have contacted a few Law Bringer friends of mine," Lucas said, "They sent me an associate who was assigned as a courier."

"And?" I asked seeing this as good news.

"I filled out a contract on Burke," Lucas said, "He's well known. The other two are not so well known and I didn't get a photo of them before they left. So as long as Burke is alive. He'll be a wanted man."

"That's good," I said relieved, "So who are these Law Bringers?"

"They're called Regulators," Lucas said, "I was one of them until I had a son. They are basically Law enforcement around the Wastes. They go after anyone who is criminal and those who are criminal and have a bounty on their head."

"So they're basically the Wasteland's militia?" I asked.

"No that's another group," Lucas said, "We basically work with people to stop others who do things wrongfully like theft, murder, or destruction of someone's property. That kind of stuff."

"Damn," I said, "so what's the bounty cap for Burke?"

"Right now 1,000 caps," Lucas said, "I chipped in half to get a deal off of the Regulator's leader. She put the other five hundred caps in just because I was the previous leader. This also brings up another matter on the subject."

"Spill it," I said patiently. I did have a feeling that Lucas wasn't here to tell me just about the contract on Burke.

"To become a Regulator," Lucas said, "You have to have a recommendation from a member or someone who is an associate. Despite his past, I have recommended Jericho and I wanted to recommend you. Billy declined his because of Maggie. The regulators could use people like you and Jericho."

I was caught off guard. "Me?" I asked flabbergasted, "A Regulator? But, but, Sheriff! I'd like to but it's just not a good time for me to do so."

"It's not a demand but it's a request," Lucas said understandingly, "I know that you already have plans. But in case you want to do this in the future, I can send a pending standby Recommendation. Just come to me anytime and I'll change it to membership status."

"That would be good," I said relieved at the pressure, "I'm honored but I can't do it right now. What about Jericho?"

"He agreed," Lucas said, "He left with the courier yesterday. He told me to tell you thanks for backing him up when you two were pursuing Burke."

"He left just like that?" I asked incredulously, "what about being in Megaton?"

"Oh he's coming back," Lucas said smiling, "He's just got to go pick up his Duster and go through the ordeal of a Membership Oath."

That was a relief. "At least he's getting the action he deserves," I said smiling, "He said he missed fighting in shootouts all the time."

"Yeah," Lucas said proudly, "Jericho has had a...troubled past but he said he wanted to make amends for it. That's okay in my book."

"I agree," I said nodding, "Say Sheriff?" I sat down in a chair.

"Yeah?" He responded.

"I might be leaving soon," I said nodding, "I want to know what's out there; find good people I can help. Would it be okay if you watched my house for me? I'll have Wadsworth activated of course but I have certain valuables in here I don't want people messing with."

"Anything important?" Sheriff asked.

"This armor," I said pointing at my armor that hung from the ceiling by chains, "It's kind of a prized possession from getting stuck down in that hole in Springvale."

"I bet," Lucas said, "Alright Nate. Let me know when you leave and I'll have someone posted near the front door at all times."

"Thanks Sheriff," I said thankful to have someone like him around.

"No problem," Lucas replied, "I've got to get back to my rounds so I'll see you later."

"Okay," I said sincerely then ordered, "Wadsworth! The door." I just wanted to mess with the Sheriff.

"Yes Master," The Mister Handy sprang to life and hovered over to the door and opened it. I grinned as the sheriff looked at me with an amused expression.

…

_Burke-_

We were walking around the side of a stone fence that surrounded a large tower with a lot of windows covering it. It was Tenpenny Tower.

"What are we doing here?" Ivory asked casually.

"This is my employer's home," I said sighing as we walked towards the front of the tower, "It is here we will assess our situation and come up with a way to take revenge. You will earn your money, so don't worry about that."

"Very well," Ebony said as we rounded a corner. We walked up to a gate that was closed.

"This is Burke," I said into an intercom, "Open this damn gate."

"Yes sir," The Gate keeper said, "Welcome Mr. Burke." With that we walked to the tower entrance. I was ready to speak with my employer.

...

_Nathan_

Boredom set in around five minutes after I spoke with Lucas. I decided to head to Craterside Supply to speak with Moira about the research.

"So," She said smiling, "Have you finished the opening?"

"I've got two parts done," I said honestly, "I need one more then I'm done. But aside from that, what else were you planning to mention in the guide? I could help you do this stuff."

"Well the first chapter is about basic survival skills," Moira said, "It involves Gathering Food and Medical Supplies, terms in Radiation Sickness, and caring for injured limbs."

"Ah," I said intrigued, "So it's about maintaining a person's health?"

"Correct," Moira said, "I'll send you on one section at a time. It'll be easier that way. So which one first?"

"I guess I could try the closest one," I said eager to quench my boredom, "Just to get started."

"Alrighty," Moira said gladly, "Follow me." We walked through the doorway Butch was near and up the stairs. We walked over a catwalk and climbed a latter and found our way into the cockpit of an old airplane. It was filled with equipment from floor to ceiling. There was a desk with several documents on it. There was even a screen that had a map on it. She opened a prewar USB drive and connected my Pipboy with a cord. My Pipboy downloaded the map.

"This map is the Capital Wasteland," These are places I know of though, "I don't know what's in the city though. I have never been inside. But the first place I'm sending you is a Market building called the _Super Duper Market_. I want you to check it out."

"I'm guessing this is for Scavenging for food and Medical Supplies?" I asked.

"Right again," Moira said, "To write this up, I want you to summarize the experience of scavenging to others and see if you can bring back any evidence to support this, you can of course keep everything you find. I won't need it, I just want to see what you bring back."

"Okay," I said, "I'll check it out."

"Oh!" Moira exclaimed, "I almost forgot." She walked over to a stand that had armor on it. "I made this a jumpsuit a Vault dweller gave me and some armoring pieces. Take it and it'll probably help you a little bit."

I looked at the jumpsuit. There were pauldrons on each shoulder with a strap wrapping around the left one and looping around to the waist and up the back. There were elbow guards and shin guards as well. There was a belt with several pouches and ammo slots. The strap that looped had clips on it and shotgun shell slots. It was a Vault 101 variant. "It's for helping me with this survival guide," Moira said, "it's free and it's one of a kind."

"Oh yeah," I said looking at it, "I think I like it." I ran my hand over it.

"I figured you would," Moira said, "Especially since you're a Vault Dweller."

"Yeah," I said realizing that I couldn't return there, "I'm going to pack for the trip." Then I remembered that I'd probably want to have eye protection. "Do you have something that would fit over this armor like a large duster?"

Moira gave me a quizzical look. "I do have a large Black Robe," She said, "The Pauldrons are made to bend on hinges so they keep your arm guarded. Why do you need one?"

"To keep the sun's rays from hitting me," I said honestly, "I could probably make a makeshift mouth cover too. I'd need a pair of goggles too so the sand stays out my eyes."

"You're in luck," Moira said, "I've got all those things, follow me." I followed her down to the store floor and she pulled a robe off the shelf, got a piece of cloth off another, then finally a pair of goggles. "This will cost you eleven caps."

I gave her the caps. "Do you have holsters?" I asked, "preferably for handguns and a shotgun? Oh I will probably need a knife of some kind and a holster for it."

"Five caps each," Moira said casually, "as for knives I have a combat knife which is fifteen caps including the holster." I handed her the caps and I was on my way.

I travelled back to my house letting Lucas know I was leaving. He kept his promise and had someone keep guard over my home's front door. I was on my way in. I closed the door behind me and walked towards my shelf saying "Wadsworth, Active mode."

The robot sprang to life. "I am at your service master," He uttered.

"Wadsworth," I said taking off my pants and putting on the armored jumpsuit, "I am leaving for a little while. I'll be gone possibly for a day. I want you to remain active and keep an eye on the house. The sheriff has someone watching the front door so don't expect them to come in."

"Yes sir," Wadsworth said, "I won't fail you master."

"Oh and don't go near the closet under the stairs," I said, "It contains a highly explosive substance in it. Other than that clean the dust or whatever, okay?"

"Yes Master," Wadsworth said. With that I began to get everything ready for travel. I strapped a two handgun holster on my sides. I opened one of the boxes of shotgun shells and had enough room for twelve shells on my strap slot. I put several Stimpacks in a pouch on my side and I was bringing my medical pack in my backpack. I also put a few rations of food from the refrigerator and a bottle of water. I put my notebooks and writing utensils in too. I added one Nuka cola for when the job was done.

I started to strap on my combat knife in its holster, then put an SMG in one holster, and my silenced N99 in the other. There was another pouch used for holding 10mm clips. I put on my black robe which was surprisingly comfortable over the armor; it had a hood so as soon as I put on a pair of goggles and the facial cloth I put it over my head. The shotgun strap was over the robe so it would conceal my weaponry. I then put on my backpack. I looked in a mirror on the wall. I looked like a total stranger with my body fully concealed and travel gear on.

"See you later Wadsworth," I said lastly as I walked out my front door and locked it behind me. I walked towards the entrance giving Stockholm a thumbs up. He opened the barriers as I walked towards them. So here I was, heading back out into the unsafe wasteland. It still hadn't changed, no matter how many times I dreamed about the prewar world depictions from the old video's we watched in that Vault 101's school.

But this place was still a wasteland; this place was still the post apocalyptic world I was now forced to live in. This hell, held my father in its grasp whom I was searching for. No matter the distinctions of right from wrongs, I would always keep my moral values first. I would not take from someone to gain knowledge of something else, unless they threatened me.

I walked down the path to a road that ran through Springvale. Thankfully there was not any local wildlife. I checked my map to see where I was. This Pipboy was astounding. What got me was the fact that the map was charted by Moira, how she plotted the map is beyond me. I let my interest fade realizing I was out in the open. Once getting to the road I turned left and followed it up a hill. There were destroyed cars spotting the road as I walked and even some down in a steep slope that probably were knocked off. I kept walking until I heard something. It was rapid clicking and sounds of movement. I walked up close to one of the destroyed Corvega's pulling out my Combat Shotgun. I turned around to look behind me. I didn't see anything, but there was something nearby.

I walked slowly up the road, gun out and watching for anything out of the ordinary. I heard what sounded like a metal bang behind me. I turned around to see something move behind a car. I crept up to it with my shotgun's barrel trained on it. Before I got within ten feet of the car, a large bug jumped on top of it. This bug was large with three limbs on each side, had pincers for a mouth and large bug like eyes. It was an ant….that was bigger than those scorpions I've seen.

It crawled down and at me as quick as its legs allowed it. It jumped up at me. I pulled the trigger of my shotgun. The power of the shotgun kicked but the giant ant was sent back and dropped to the ground as the pellets from the shotgun shell impacted. It lay there motionlessly. I walked up to it and moved it with my foot. Still not moving. _I hate bugs._

I kept going to my destination ready to get there. I had only been gone for thirty minutes by the time I got to the top of the slope the road travelled on. There was an old farm house that was eroded and barely standing like the houses in Springvale. There was an old fence that was near it though and a grain Silo behind the house. I walked up to the house do to curiosity. I looked around it for anything of use. There was nothing really, except maybe broken prewar appliances such as a bathtub or sink. I did happen to see something on a shelf though. It looked like a few books. Most were burnt and ruined. There were a few though that peaked my interest. One was titled, "_Stealth Tactics: Art of Secrecy_" and there were a lot of old books that looked like they were from before the war. The books had different covers and titles too. There were five prewar books. They were titled '_Agricultural Aspects,' 'Guide to animal enclosure,' 'Webster's Encyclopedia 2076 Edition A-M,' 'Webster's Encyclopedia 2076 Edition N-Z,' and 'Mechanics of Farm Machinery.'_

I took all of them putting them in my backpack. Next time I'm bored and have nothing to do I'll just read up on some of this. I took one last look at the ruined house for anything I could use. I did happen to see a buried in the ground. I walked over to it and dug some of the dirt off it. I looked at the basic front of it. There was a keyhole and nothing else. I pulled out a bobby pin and put it in the keyhole. I hadn't done this in a while so I was careful. I turned the bobby pin a little bit and used it as a rod to detect any tumblers. I bumped one and pulled on the latch. _Got it. _I opened it to see what was inside. There was prewar United States currency, twenty $50.00 bills. There was also a bottle of Vodka and two stimpacks. I left the Vodka and took everything else with me. I looked up to see something down the hill towards the city. There was something moving near a water tower. I looked carefully at whatever it was. I pulled out my shotgun. I seriously had to invest in something that would increase my visual acuity at that distance. I checked my map on my Pipboy for the Super Duper Mart. I could see the back of some kind of building down on a flat area.

If I was reading the map correctly, that building was the Super Duper Mart. Normally I'd precede, but the movement of some kind of animal or person left me wary. I had to push on though, one to see if it brings me one step closer to finding my father and two to prove to myself I could do it. If I could prove this then I would be able to help others in need. I walked out on the road and followed it towards the building. I kept an eye on the direction of the water tower, making sure I wasn't surprised by anything. My awareness had to be up so I can expect anything. As ironic as it was, while thinking this I bumped into a destroyed Corvega while I was keeping an eye on my rear.

I turned around ready to shoot but I soon found out what had shaken me. Smiling at what scared me, I kept moving. I was close to the building at its side but still on the road. Checking the clock just to see what time it was I found out I had been away from Megaton for an hour and fifteen minutes. Scavenging must make time fly by or something. Deciding it would be best to be stealthy in case I find something I didn't want to run into I ran up to the Building's side and crept along it towards the front. I kept my shotgun out of course. I stopped at the corner of the building and peered around it. There wasn't anyone around. I checked my rear to see nothing, not even whatever was at the water tower. I looked back to the front of the building.

There were destroyed Corvega's and shopping carts all over an old ruined parking lot. I looked around carefully for signs of life, particularly life that wanted to end mine. There was a port over the entrances and there were two Nuka-cola machines next to them. I looked up on a few poles to see a sign that said "_Super-Duper Mart."_

I looked down near it to see something behind an old rusted chain-link fence. It was another giant ant. It looked like it was digging for something though. Then I saw something else. Coming from down the road that was on a steep slope under a large overpass, were two of those floating spherical robots. Dang how many were there out here? Those things were everywhere. I looked at them as they maneuvered passing and over several destroyed cars on the road. They suddenly sped up hovering towards the ant. Both shot the little red beams from their small weapons. The Giant ant scurried towards them furiously. But it was too late for it to do any damage. The robots quickly killed it like it was nothing.

I didn't know if these robots were for pest control or not, but they seemed pretty handy at times. Every time there was an insect near me and they were around, the insects were toast. I made a mental note to ask about them when I got back to Megaton. The two robots turned around and hovered back up the way they came disappearing behind the rubble and destroyed vehicles. I looked around one more time in every direction that I wasn't blind to and then I proceeded towards the Mart's closest entrance. I stayed low not sure who or what could be inside. I peered in the window looking for signs of life. There was someone in there, walking on top of shelves, or what I thought was shelves.

But then a figure was walking from one of the isles and towards the entrance I was near. I widened my eyes as I bolted, still keeping low, back around to my corner. Just when I looked back around the corner I saw the door open. Maybe they were friendly like Megaton's citizens. This man came into my view. He looked Caucasian but his skin was grimy with filth and had a Mohawk for a hair style. He wore armor that was made out of junk. For a weapon he had an iron pole. He smelled like Brahmin shit as well, it almost made me gag.

"Damn idiots," I heard him mutter, "I want to kill them all. That girl they're bringing will ease my back pain." The man opened the Nuka cola machine and got one out. "Oh damn have I been waiting on a girl for us to fuck with for a while. Hopefully I can kill someone haha."

He turned around and looked out at the city drinking his Nuka cola. I didn't know what to do. The way he talked was starting to sound like he was a Raider. From what I had heard about Raider's is that they do anything they want and kill whenever they wanted. They would torture, rape, and murder anyone. But, I had to see this for myself; I had to witness this cruelty for myself. I put my shotgun back in its holster slung on my back. My arms and weaponry were hidden under my robe so I pulled out my regular N99 10mm handgun keeping it hidden.

I walked around the corner and into sight. He looked at me and pulled out his pipe saying gleefully, "Oh yeah! Someone to kill." He said it as if his prayers were answered.

"Whoa!" I said seeing if I could talk my way out of this, "I'm not here to fight. I just want to see if I can find some food."

"Even better," the man said brandishing his weapon, "Do you know what I am kid? I'm a Raider. I'm going to beat you, chop your limbs, and mutilate your insides. I'm going to kill you. So say your prayers kid."

With that he ran at me. I decided I didn't need my gun for him. I put it away and as he swung straight down, I grabbed his swinging wrist with my right and hooked him in the jaw. I heard an "oof" when it collided. He went to try and punch me with his free hand but I pushed him away with my foot. He stumbled as he pulled out some kind of handgun. I quickly decided to use mine. I shot three times. Two hit in the chest and one in the head. The Raider died instantly.

"So uncivilized," I said shaking my head, "Damn, the world just had to go to hell didn't it?" I reloaded the clip and put it in. "Looks like I'm going to have to be lethal."

I checked the window again to see if this scuffle had alerted anyone inside. The one person I could see was still walking around on top the shelves. It was extremely dark in there besides the light that poured in from the ceiling. I sighed making the decision to go inside. I went in pulling out my Silenced N99. I didn't know how many were in here but I knew I had an obligation to do my job. I walked steadily in a pace. I knew if I shot one Raider the others would notice, if there were any, but still using a silenced weapon won't let anyone detect me...I hope. I still had my eye on the Raider who was casually walking on top the shelves. He had what looked like an assault rifle. I took aim still walking at a pace, at his head. I pulled the trigger and I heard a 'thp' sound, then saw the body fall off and hearing it hit the ground. As I continued to walk I heard someone yell something.

"Someone's in here," I heard, "Come on boys we got us a fight. Damn asshole died haha."

I walked over at the side of the store where I could see the isles and the makeshift walkways. There was a kitchen near me; I decided that once these Raiders were killed I'd search the place. I crouched down at the end of an isle shelf. I didn't see anything on top of the makeshift walkways so I peered over the shelves to see anyone else. Three figures were walking towards the front of the store where there were old checkout lines.

"Alright split up," One said, "If this asshole wants to play hide and seek let's give him the best damn game he has ever had. Only this time we kill him!" The others laughed at this.

_Bullshit, let them try. _I readied my gun, my blood boiling with adrenaline. One was coming my way and the other two were walking towards the other side of the mart. I moved behind the shelf down the aisle but stayed close to where I was. This Raider walked exactly where I was just five seconds ago. He had a shotgun of some sort. I had my barrel pointed at the end of the isle when I saw him stop and look at me.

"Oh shi-" He started to yell but I silenced him with a shot to the face.

"Scat?" I heard one of the other Raiders call, "Is he back there?" There was no reply of course because the Raider was dead. "Scat?" I peered over the isle to see the two Raiders looking at the corner where first went to. I carefully aimed from where I was, at the one in front. My aim was accurate and the Raider dropped. The other one raised his gun frightened. I ducked down and crept as quickly as I could to the side of the mart and continued pass the aisles towards the back. I stopped on the second to the last row.

Peering over the aisle towards the back I saw the Raider running towards a counter that was at a service area. There was another Raider sitting down at a table. I shot the one running missing his head but instead somehow hitting his leg. He felled in pain as he dropped. "Ah shit!" He yelled at the raider sitting down, "Someone's killing everyone. Damn fucker shot me!"

The raider got up from his table brandishing an SMG. "I got something for him," He said then yelled, "Hey everyone! We got us a sneak! Get out here, he's killing everyone!"

With that the Raider vaulted over the counter, pointed his gun at the downed Raider. "No!" He yelled in horror, "Don-"

The Raider shot him. "Useless dumbass," He said reloading his gun. So he wants to play that way huh? He walked towards my side of the mart. I reloaded my silenced N99 and debated on to use my shotgun or not. Until he got closer I wouldn't be able to hit him, I sucked at long ranges. I made a mental note to practice shooting at longer distances. I decided to stick with the silenced N99, it was serving me well.

The Raider was closer. I carefully took aim and shot him in the hand that wielded the SMG then in the shoulder that the arm held. He yelped in pain then looked at a final sight to see me. I fired one last bullet in him. I breathed a little as he dropped. Then out of nowhere a shot hit a tin can that was right in front of me. I looked to my left to see a raider with some kind of rifle on the makeshift walkway. He aimed at me again after readying it. There was another shot that almost hit me. I fell back and landed on the other shelf's top. Well, my back grazed it. I got up gasping for air at the sudden impact.

Then I heard rapid fire and bullets sprayed all around me. I looked that way and there were two now. They had an assault rifle. I ran towards the side of the mart and around the shelf towards the front. Damn, they just had to be smart this time.

Running I put my silenced away and pulled out my SMG. "Don't let him get away!" the one with the rifle said, "Two Raider's should be able to match against him."

So there were only two. I stayed low and ready to fire. I slid behind a floor freezer that would hold prewar foods. It was one that was between the isles and Kitchen area. I was leaning on the freezer facing the Kitchen. I stayed there listening for the Raiders movements and sounds, anything to let me know where they were. After a minute I could hear their footsteps near me. When I was sure they had passed I dared to peak over the side of the freezer. They were walking side by side looking around towards the other side of the mart. I stood up and fired my SMG as quick as I could displacing several bullet's into both of their backs.

They both fell forward dying. I exhaled deeply relieved that I survived this skirmish. I looked around waiting on another Raider to show up….nothing. I reloaded my gun and took off my goggles and facial guard. I let my hood droop down. Now, I could safely complete my scavenging mission.

I walked towards the kitchen that was surrounded by a counter. I walked in through the door and the first thing I went for was the refrigerator. I opened it. There was definitely a food stock here. There were several shelves full of meats, prewar preserved food, and water. I closed the refrigerator and decided to check out the shelves that were holding crates full of something. There were some empty Nuka cola bottles as well as some that hadn't been opened. I walked over to the counters. They were sectional that surrounded one lone counter. The center counter had strange guns that I had never seen before. They were rectangular with battery packs and wires outside the barrel. It was a hand gun of some sort. There were a bunch of weird battery packs on the counter as well. There were several green metal boxes under the counter and on top. I looked in them, even though there were five of them.

In the ammo boxes were ammo separated in each one. There were four 10mm clips, more battery packs, three 5.57 mm clips, twelve shotgun shells, and twenty .32 shells. I put them all in one ammo box knowing that I wasn't leaving this stockpile of ammo behind. I took one of the wooden crates and loaded the food in it. I set it beside my claimed box of ammo. Stacking one on top the other I exited the kitchen area and walked towards the back of the store. I left the stack on the counter. There were dead Raiders spotted around the floor of the mart. I decided I'd loot them later. I continued towards the back and there were two different areas separated by a doorway. One of them was large with a locked doorway behind it.

The one of the separate room's, which was the one the Raider had been in before he killed his own, looked like a customer support office. There were bookshelves, two desks, numerous metal boxes, and ammo boxes. I walked up to the counter and sat my belongings on it, even my backpack. I kept all my weaponry on except the shotgun. I scavenged the boxes nearby getting more ammo. I found some kind of Key in a box. I took it. It might come in handy for getting in the Pharmacy. I found more Frag grenades in a box as well as something called a bottle cap mine. I made my way to the room next to the Customer Support office that were separated by a hall.

This was evidently the Pharmacy Service area. There was a door to another room as well as a computer on a desk next to it. I looked around to see several grenade boxes and ammo piles. I doubled back and brought my other stuff to this area. I didn't know how I was going to carry it all back. I'd have to worry about that later. I opened the door to the Pharmacy with the help of the key. The place was mostly wrecked, shelves toppled over and boxes of materials sprawled everywhere. The only interesting thing I found was a large pod of some sort next to a desk with a terminal, a miniature nuclear bomb, a small amount of ammo, and a Medical Pack hanging on the wall. I inspected the pod out of curiosity. There was something inside, some kind of robot. It was a Protectron. I wiped the dust off of the top rim of the pod to read_, Super Duper Mart Security Protectron: Codename SDM23. _It would be cool if I could activate it. I opened the Medical Pack on the wall and there was a large amount of medicine. There were twelve stimpaks, and twenty Rad-away's.

I packed them into my medical bag and brought all the stuff that looked interesting on the desk out to the main counter top where I left my other stuff. I made a good haul, not to mention the food that I was going to get on my way out. I decided to write down what my findings were, as promised to Moira Brown. I finished with three and a half paragraphs. Now it was time to head back to Megaton to visit Moira.

Then my heart started to pound as I heard someone's voice echo. "We're back," He said, "Open up the...hang on. Something ain't right here. Alright everyone there are dead bodies here. Let's kill us a trespasser!"

I gulped as I saw a woman walk my way from around the corner of the isles at the front. This was not good, I was trapped. I pulled my backpack off the counter top and pulled my silenced pistol out. _Think Nathan, think!_

I calmed myself down formulating a plan already. I pulled out a Frag Grenade and grabbed a nearby old bent can for my plan. Before I used any of those two I cautiously peered over the counter top. The woman was still walking my way. She was a Raider. I had to put my "kindness to ladies" attitude away. She had the intent to kill me. I aimed at her head, hoping to kill her painlessly. She still didn't see me and I didn't know why, maybe it was me being in the dark. I aimed down the sights. _End her life, she'll kill you if you don't. Do it, do it! She's a woman who's a Raider._ I pulled the trigger as she had come in line with the bathroom hall area. She dropped instantly. At least her death was painless. I was going to lose some sleep over that one. I heard footsteps from in front of the Customer Support Office. I acted quickly by throwing the can towards the body of the woman.

"Did you hear that?" One asked.

"Yeah," the other responded, "Let's check it out." There were two of them. I waited for them to pass the corner of the counter I was at and walk towards the bathroom where the woman's body was. I looked at them. They stopped next to her as another Raider walked towards them from the same direction the woman came from.

"Oh this is fucked up," One of them said, "Her too?"

I set my sights on the one that was closest to the bathroom. I shot which dropped him instantly and quickly threw a primed Frag Grenade their way. They heard it bounce on the floor and land between them. One of them yelled, "Oh shit!" He was the one who got away by running backwards. He tripped and tried to crawl away from the blast. The other was shocked of what was going on. He died in the explosion.

I was aiming at the remaining Raider who got up, "I'm outta here!" he bolted for the front doors. I relaxed my posture. That was close, real close. If they would've spotted me I would've been a goner.

I looked around listening for movement. No one else was here. Either way, I decided that I was not leaving this place today. It was almost dusk and I wasn't too thrilled traveling a hostile wasteland at night. The food could wait until in the morning. There was a mattress next to the table with the terminal on it. I looked around to make sure there was no one out in the mart again. I moved quickly to relocate my belongings into the Pharmacy room on the counter top under the Medical kit and then drag the mattress into the room in the corner away from the door. I shut the door and locked it behind me. To make sure I had even more protection I used one of the toppled shelves to barricade the door with a desk on top of it. I moved my stuff next to my bedding. I wasn't taking chances, surviving is what I'm doing. This sucked horribly.

I leaned against the wall breathing trying to calm down. It was literally hell out here, there was no way around that. I breathed carefully. I was safe for now, safer than I had been walking the wastes to here. I let my eyes wander around the room until, I saw the pod. The Protectron! I got up immediately and pulled up the terminal screen. There was a password code box on it. I pressed: _ctrl+P+O. _

A series of words came up separated by symbols. The trick to hacking computers was easy. Don't select stupid words. Since the majority of the words were five letters, this meant that the password was only five letters. Most were random words like, _Seven, Great, Hurry, and Minor. _But there was one that I was looking at that looked full proof. _Herbs_.

I selected Herbs and typed it in. _Access Granted._

I went through several commands and then clicked, _Activate Protectron Security Protocol. _The pod slid open and the Protectron activated. I noticed something on top the monitor. There was an employee ID card. I picked it up and looked at it. It said, _Super Duper Mart Employee: John Miles._

"Unit X23 Activated," The Protectron said robotically, "Security Protocol Initiated. Detecting authorized employee. Scanning. Hello John Miles."

"Uh," I started, "Hello." I looked down at the ID card again. It thinks I'm an employee.

"There is a blockage at the pharmacy door," It announced, "please remove it." I had to think fast without it trying to force its way through.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I cannot do that. There is possible danger outside this room. Don't worry. Everything left of value is in this one. I want you to guard this room by making sure no one comes through that door."

"Processing," It said, "Order acknowledged, Security defense activated." It made its way out of the pod and walked towards the door. It stood at the end of the barricade and stared blankly at the wall.

I walked back over to the mattress, laid down, and slowly fell asleep. My Pipboy alarm woke me up around seven in the morning. I got up cautiously seeing that the Protectron hadn't moved all night. I yawned grabbing my backpack then slung it on. I got up walking towards the Protectron.

"Any disturbances?" I asked it.

"No sir," It responded.

"Good," I said, "I'm going to take down the barricade. When I do patrol out and see if there are any disturbances out in the Mart."

"Order Acknowledged," The Protectron said.

I moved the barricade and pulled out my shotgun. I wasn't too thrilled to lose and arm or something out of a surprise attack. I opened the door standing on the backside to avoid exposure to whatever was in the market area. The Protectron proceeded outside scanning the area. "No threat detected," It said, "Continuing thorough patrol." It walked out of my sight. I peered around the door with my shotgun pointed at where ever I looked. I crept out checking my blind spots near me. I saw the protectron make its way towards the other side of the mart. I went to join it. As it made its way up towards the kitchen I returned for the food which I remembered was left on the counter under a box of ammo.

I holstered my shotgun and walked towards the front door with the load in my arms. _I'm going to carry this three miles to Megaton?_ Nope. I put it down on an old prewar cashier counter. Dang. I let my eyes wander around the store. There was a rusty but wheeled shopping cart next to me. Then it dawned on me. I felt like Butch in the Vault classroom, stupid as hell. I put the boxes in the cart as well as my backpack then noticed the dead Raiders behind the line. They owed me. I looted the bodies gaining a surplus of weaponry and ammo. I put my protective gear back on and began wheeling the cart towards the door once more.

The Protectron was standing near it. "Leaving sir?" It asked. I looked at it as it swiveled its upper half. Protectrons were an interesting robot. It would be ashamed for it to go to waste sitting here. "Deactivate," I ordered it.

"Roger," It announced. Suddenly its head powered down and it deactivated. I readjusted everything on the cart putting the ammo box and food on the bottom and the weaponry closer to me. I put the heavy, but deactivated Protectron in the cart. Eh, I made a good haul here. Now it was time to make my way back to Megaton.

I pulled the cart out of the store shotgun in one hand. I was about to leave when I saw something, or someone tied up bound by ropes on all four limbs. It was a woman. I quickly looked away as she flinched at the sight of me. She was naked, her clothes next to her. Then I remembered something that the raider said. It was about a woman the group was coming back with. This must've been her. I took off my protective robe and threw it over her chest and knees. This woman was bound by the limbs. The Raiders were obviously planning on raping her.

"Are you hurt?" I asked. I decided it best to leave her tied up for the second in case she thought I was hostile. She shook her head. She was Caucasian and had blondish brown hair with sky green eyes. I noticed a cut on her right arm. It was deep too.

"You're lying," I said. She whimpered a little bit.

"It's okay," I said getting on my knees next to her, "You're safe."

For a wastelander she looked athletic but malnourished. "Listen," I said, "I'm going to untie you. I'm not stupid, you're not an regular wastelander. Please don't try to kill me. I'd hate to hurt someone who's troubled like this."

She looked at me. Her face wasn't scarred or nothing. It was like they didn't even touch her face. "Are," She said, "You the ghost?"

"Pardon?" I asked not sure if I heard her right.

"The Ghost," She repeated shaking her voice, "That Raider last night. He ran out screaming something about a ghost killing everyone one. He said his gang was dropping dead all around him and didn't see the culprit. Did you do it?"

I looked at her through my goggles. "Yes," I answered, "But only in self-defense. I knew they meant harm to me. Just as they meant harm to you. I did not know you were out here." I pulled out my combat knife and cut the restraint of her right arm. "If I did, I would've freed you earlier." I cut the restraint on her right foot. This woman looked no older than I did, nineteen.

"Tell me," I said concerned for this woman's well-being, "You can trust me. Did they do what I'm assuming they did to you? Tying you up like this?" I moved around cutting her left foot restraint.

She looked away. "They almost did," She said with her voice soft and angelic, "They were ranting several vulgar things about me. What they were going to do to me. How they'd keep it going for a week, until they were ready to kill me. They stopped seeing the dead Raider over there. The female Raider that was with them called them pigs jokingly. Yet I had seen the women do the same to men as the male Raiders did to woman. The only difference as that the female Raiders use a gun to make them do that stuff."

The image she created for me was vulgar enough. I couldn't imagine what this girl had gone through. It made me sick just thinking about it. I cut the last restraint. The woman leaned up holding the robe close to her. "Who are you?" She asked.

"My name is Nathan Adams Warren," I answered. I held her clothes in my hand and presented them to her. "Here." She gazed at them and took them. I got up, turned around, and let her put them back on.

"I'm a doctor you know," I said as I heard her slipping something on, "I can take a look at that cut."

"You're a doctor?" She asked, "What kind?"

"I was trained in Medical terms," I said, "But I'm good with other science stuff too. Learning is just a hobby of mine. That's why I brought that Protectron out."

She was silent for a second. "What about you?" I asked, "What's your name?"

"My name is Katlin Hardee," She answered, "But call me Kate. I'm a...traveler." She wasn't being truthful enough but I decided to let it go. "I'm through." I turned around and she was pulling her shirt down to cover her stomach.

"Where are you from?" I asked.

"I'd have to say somewhere from the West," She said, "I only lived there since I was five. I travelled around a lot with my parents." That seemed truthful enough. "What about you?"

I looked her over. I might as well tell her. "I'm from a Vault nearby," I said truthfully, "It's in Springvale. I came out after complications. My dad left and I want to find him."

She seemed intrigued by this then looked over at my cart. "Then why are you scavenging like this?" She asked, "Or collecting."

I sighed. "Ah the million dollar question," I said, "I decided to do oddball jobs. One in particular I was interested in is the book I am helping someone write that is called the Wasteland Survival Guide."

"Why a book?" She asked perplexed. It was like she didn't understand the concept of a survival guide.

"Well," I said, "I came out of a Vault not knowing what I was doing out here. I about went crazy at the sudden change of the environment I was used to. In the vault your safe, no one has the intent to kill." Except the overseer's pet, Officer Mack. "That is if you follow the vault's overseer's orders. Out here, it's everyone for their self. Something I wasn't used to. So I decided that maybe this book will help people like me. Those are the ones who life changes in an instant. There are some struggling to survive out here. I think this book might help."

She seemed even more confused now. "What about your father?" She asked.

"He is my priority yes," I said, "But I can't seem to find any leads on him. Well there's one but he won't tell me unless I pay him an outrageous fee. The man's an extortionist and a conman. The town hates him but he keeps them satisfied with booze and uh, whores. I've met the last one there, her name's Nova and she seems like a nice woman. She's only doing it so she doesn't get kicked out. That's the only reason she seems to be so tough."

"So why not make him tell you?" Kate asked shunting off everything else I said.

"That's not how I do things," I answered, "What's the point in making something happen by force if it hurts others? You're no different than Raiders. No I prefer my approach. Do things the right way no matter what."

"What about killing people then?" She asked, "And killing the Raiders?"

"If they mean no harm to me," I said, "I've got no problem with them. Now say if they're abusing someone else. God help them, because they've had it. I don't take kindly to someone abusing another for the fun of it."

Kate looked at me for some time. She acted like I was hiding something, and truth be told, I thought she was doing the same. "What's with you? Why are you hiding your face?" She asked.

I realized I still had my goggles and mouth cover on. "Oh," I said, "My bad." I took them off. Her expression faltered slightly. "What's wrong? You weren't expecting me to look like I was battle hardened with scars?"

"No," She said sounding embarrassed, "That's not it. I just…didn't expect you to look so clean." That had to be the dumbest lie in the world, but I still let it go. There was something she wasn't telling me but I wasn't going to push her into doing so.

There was a distant explosion that echoed heavily somewhere. It made me remember why I was out here in the first place. "Listen uh," I said, "Kate. I got to get back to Megaton. I was supposed to be back yesterday."

"Oh," She said sounding disappointed, "Well ummm." I walked back to my cart. Why her tone was something I couldn't stand was beyond me.

"But," I said, "If you want to come. There'd be no harm in that." I was too nice for my own good, yet this girl seemed the same way.

"Uh," She said, "Sure." So that was it. I found myself a new travelling companion for a while. After all I've been through today. It was nice having someone here to talk to. Kate seemed like the right person.

….


	8. Preparations

This is the final Enclave exclusive Chapter for a good long while, which is probably a good thing.

Chapter 8: Future Preparations

_Augustus Autumn Jr.-_

I was right. The scrap metal wasn't just for repairing the generator for the relay tower. We were in another meeting with each other. President Eden was telling us what the scrap was for.

"The scrap metal I allowed you to retrieve," He said, "Is for repairs on the Relay station. However, I am preparing the rest for transport."

"What for," My father asked.

"There are several robot production factories for the prewar United States," Eden said, "They are hidden further up North in an old community called Fredrick. With the tower relay activated we can begin a hefty production of Robots for the Enclave from a distance. I'd rather not let the locals know about us until we're ready to show ourselves."

"Agreed," My father said.

"How are you sending the metal?" Jerry McLeod asked.

"In small caravan's," Eden said, "Two trailers towed by a Robobrain protected by two Sentry bots armed with Gatling Lasers and four Mister Gutsy's. I've already prepared many for this mission. Each Caravan will leave at thirty minute intervals to reduce suspicion of a large group."

"What about these inbuilt factories you told us about?" I asked, "What are they being used for?"

"I am using one to construct more vertibirds, another to construct weapons, and the last to make ammo," Eden said, "Useful don't you think?"

"Yes," My father said, "But robots and new weapons do not make up the Enclave. We need personnel that are trained."

"I agree," Eden said immediately, "McLeod? Todd?"

"The troops are progressing nicely," Todd said, "No insubordinate actions at all."

"I'm reporting that the breeding program," McLeod said sounding dark, "Is a go."

"Very well," Eden said, "Everything is going as planned. Before we end this meeting, I suggest that we begin armor production."

"I am trying to modify our current armor to give our troops more of an advantage on the battlefield," My father said.

"That would be an improvement," Todd said, "Modified Power Armor?"

"Hmm," President Eden said, "What if you redesign the armor completely? If you think about it, our enemies are now on par with our technology. We need a new model completely, a second version of the old one."

"So you want us to start with a clean sheet?" I asked, "We can't forget the major losses we have endured."

"I know Major Autumn," Eden said, "However we need to build ourselves up to a stronger point, even if it means changing our appearance. Keep our motives strong as ever, but change is how every proud nation evolves."

"Yes sir," I said obediently. He sort of had a point even though I didn't like it.

"Alright," Eden said, "This meeting is adjourned."

…

_Barry Todd-_

I stood on a platform in sinkhole two. The Platform came complete with a monitoring system and a communications radio. There was one other officer up here and he was watching the screens. There was also an Eyebot and Mister Gutsy up were over a hundred trainees were doing physical training with low ranking trainers making sure they were doing it right. There was also several Eyebot's floating around watching them. I had several doing five-hundred push-ups and running laps around the sinkhole. There were several of them at shooting ranges, explosive ranges, and sparring rings. They were progressing but not fast enough for my taste. "You better be giving me everything you got!" I yelled.

Someone was slacking slightly only doing push-ups half way. "You've got a slacker!" I yelled, "Double the amount of exercises you're doing!"

That was the way it was in the Enclave. If one failed, we all failed. That's how I trained my men. Punish everyone for ones failure. The officer was watching them carefully. In just a few more minutes, they will be competing in live fire squad battles. It was how we toughened them up. When one was shot, they'ed be removed from the exercise. It didn't kill them but the pain was enough to make them wish they were dead. They recovered in the infirmary. I loved putting them through this, it made them become more skillful in combat, reminding them that being shot at, wasn't fun. Sure it was harsh, but that's what we Enclave were, harsh, but to the point.

I'm glad to serve the Enclave and I don't care what is in the way of its success. I'll crush it for the Enclaves sake. That's what was going on in Raven Rock. We were rebuilding, rebuilding to make us stronger. Sacrifices had to be made.

…

_Jerry McLeod-_

My breeding program was going along great. It was harsh and unethical, but we had to make sacrifices. These sacrifices ensured the stability and strength improvement of the Enclave. Since we were low on human beings, not including the mutations of course, were definitely unethical. Women were our future, considering they provided more children. Their role was essential in the Enclave, to create more personnel. Some women didn't agree with us or didn't cooperate. So we did the only thing we could do. Tie them up, completely naked.

Every man and male children were going to be soldiers, every woman and female children were going to be the breeders. I was a medical doctor that oversaw the program. After the child is conceived in two years time, these women would be entered in the program once again. If they weren't pregnant, they'd go in again and again. The Enclave needed to be brought back to power with personnel; this was the only way to do it.

….

_Augustus Autumn Sr.-_

President Eden had a point. We needed to upgrade our armor indefinitely. Our enemy the Brotherhood of Steel has become par on par with us. Thanks to that, I trusted Eden's decision. I started looking at the schematics for the Advanced Power Armor Mark II. I already had the name for the new power armor I was designing, _Enclave Power Armor_. Using our name will mark a new generation of Power Armor. I started drawing up schematics as other scientists were setting up laboratories I had created floor plans for. This armor would be pitch black with its helmet lenses red. It would have thicker armor with a thousand pound reflecting pressure. This was enough to stop anything non energy fired weaponry except an armor piercing sniper rifle, minigun, rocket launcher, Fatman, or automatic guns up close. The armor would be heavy but with it being powered, units would only have fifty pounds of pressure on them but it would make their strength able to lift three hundred pounds this time. The last armor had a pressure of seventy five pounds and a strength modifier of only two hundred.

I began designing the helmet. It would have a built in radio transmitter, a motion tracking system, an air filtering system, and guidance system. The armor would resist radiation thanks to a few filtering hoses that were being designed into it. Overall this power armor took a while to design and create a prototype of the armor. It took around three weeks. I was just finishing the latest touches in attaching the helmet to the armor.

…

_Enclave Soldier: Corporal Thompson-_

It was around 2000 hours in military time, or in regular time 8:00. I was on board a Vertibird that was flying towards a prewar settlement called Grayditch. It was scouted the night before by some Robobrains that were deployed by Vertibird. Our mission was to test out our new armor and capability as a squad in an area that hasn't been scouted. It was a training exercise and our squad consisted of five troops. We were the last to be deployed for the exercise, at least in the capital wasteland. This was like a drill for what would come later on when we would rise out of Raven Rock.

The Vertibird circled Grayditch looking for a landing zone. I looked at a screen to see where we were landing. The Vertibird circled around near a metro station flying lower. We passed over a gap that had fell through on an overpass and landed on the other side. "Alright," The Gunnery sergeant said, "Tonight we're going to make sure this area's clear. When that is done we will move south towards a Factory called the Red Racer Factory then we'll enter the highway that is near the factory and travel it to patrol back to Grayditch. We'll make sure it's secure once more, then leave. Any questions?"

"No sir!" We all answered. The Vertibird side hatches opened up. We exited staying close to the barriers that kept us from falling off the bridge. The hatches on the sides closed as the Vertibird began to lift off until finally it was over the buildings and out of our sight.

I looked around trying to map out of what was left of this place. It was surrounded by tall destroyed buildings and Grayditch's small neighborhood. "Alright," Gunny said, "Let's move!" We walked down the bridge towards the street where a bunch of cars were piled at. The place had maybe four streets of buildings, a diner, gas station, and a small kid's park. Scouting the area was pretty simple and safe. There wasn't a single hint of mutation anywhere. I kept my laser rifle ready to fire pointed anywhere I looked. This was mostly when we checked the buildings. We always had a team member back us up on the way in. Gunny had who was the leader of our squad covered the way we came in as teams of two checked several rooms of the buildings. These buildings were no bigger than three floors and an occasional roof, if the roof wasn't cave in or was blown off.

"First Floor Clear," My squadmate whose name was Max said through the radio. He was apart of team one of the squad along with Allen.

I checked the only room on the second floor. I leaned against the wall of the short hallway near the entrance of the door. I looked towards the doorway with my laser rifle pointed that way. "Barry," I ordered, "Let's move in on my mark."

"Roger," He said.

"Mark," I ordered moving in. I whipped my gun wherever I looked and Barry was double checking the room.

"Second Floor Clear," I announced through the radio.

"Squad on me," Gunny said, "Grayditch has been scouted. I'm uploading the coordinates to our rendezvous point. Double time it."

"Roger," I heard Max say. They were already moving out. A blip on my in built compass and motion detector appeared on my helmets Head's Up Display or 'HUD.'

"Let's go," I said to Barry. We both proceeded out the room, down the stairs, and out the house. We ran as fast as we could but naturally the armor reduced our running capability. It was like a fourth of our regular running pace was taken away. We ran down the street towards the marker. Team one was ahead of us around twenty meters. They took a corner of what looked like a large but old bank. Once we were there Gunny was standing in front of a car with his plasma rifle in one hand pointing up in the air.

"Alright listen up," Gunny said, "That was good, but we're not out of the irradiated puddle yet. We will patrol towards Red Racer Factory and circle back around to the other entrance of Grayditch. Any questions?" No one answered. "Then let's move out. Formation Delta A4."

"Roger," We all said. My team took the left side of the street as Gunny and Team one took the right side. They started walking. We waited for a few seconds and started walking on our side of the street. That was how this formation was organized. Three troops patrolled the right side of the street and further while two troops stayed back and patrolled the left side of the street. We went in the same direction. If team one came under attack we would reinforce them with a surprise attack.

Our path of travel was pretty much straight forward. We travelled up slope that the road was on and took the only way possible after that. There was a lot of wreckage and rubble blocking the other street. We followed the road to the right which passed a large commons area and a building that looked like an office building of some sort. Along the way were some exposed sewer tunnels and more wrecked vehicles and street lights. There was a power line pole that had fell over on a truck with a crushed skeleton in it. I ignored it.

My team halted at the intersection of the streets. There was a bridge that looked like it went under the highway straight ahead and then there was a street to the left that led towards somewhere. It looked like it came right near the Red Racer Factory thanks to the blip on my HUD. Gunny told us to hold there while he and team one scouted down the long street. Barry was crouching watching the street they went down. I kept my eyes on his blind spot which was pretty much everywhere else he wasn't looking.

"Anything Thompson?" Barry asked lowering his gun slightly.

"No," I answered, "All clear."

"Should we proceed?" Barry asked.

"No, we wait for Gunny's orders," I said solidly. I wasn't about to disobey a direct order to my superior officer. It was quiet for a second then Barry continued to talk.

"So this is the last training exercise until the President opens Raven Rock?"Barry asked.

"Yep," I said, "Well the last one in the Capitol Wasteland. I heard he's trying to locate a secondary main base for the Enclave. You know, in case Raven Rock falls." I examined my laser rifle seeing if there was anything odd about it. It was good to keep that going.

"Huh," Barry said sounding disappointed then tried to make it seem like he wasn't, "Well, hopefully we'll see some action on this exercise. None of the other thirty eight squads did. It be nice to prove ours is superior." He almost seemed ready to pull the trigger.

"Relax Private," I said sighing, "The chances for that are low." Then I thought about it. "Well… considering our luck? We'd probably-"

There was a loud explosion that vibrated the Earth below us. "Thompson!" Barry announced. I quickly snapped around to see a stray missile flying up at an angle towards us.

"Move!" I yelled. We ran towards the other side of the intersection. The missile hit the tall building right over where we were standing. It started to collapse. A large chunk of the building landed on the street Gunny and team one used to be on. If we hadn't moved we would've been crushed by the debris. Several gunshots could be heard coming from down that road.

Two blips appeared on my HUD that was marked as friendly. "This is Gunnery Sergeant Ems," I heard someone said, "We are under fire. Repeat we are under fire. Team two, get your asses down here."

"Roger that," I acknowledged. I checked my laser rifle for any damage while saying, "Well Barry, it looks like your wish was granted. Let's move out."

"Acknowledged," Barry responded. We jumped over the pile of debris and began running down the street. We got to part of the street that over looked a parking lot in a pit like area. Red Racer Factory was a wall in the pit like parking lot. There were several Raiders advancing through the parking lot down another sloped road that drove around an employee's parking lot. It was like we came up on a large gang of them. I heard and saw fire coming from the employee parking lot.

"Barry," I said, "Surprise explosion." I crouched near the car railing. There were plenty of nuclear powered vehicles down there to kill most of the Raiders if not all.

"With pleasure," Barry said pulling out a strange looking grenade with green energy spikers. He threw it and crouched near me. There was a large explosion that shook the ground ten times worse than the last explosion. A large yellowish blue wave washed over the entire area brightening it up like it was day time. The afterglow remained. We readied our laser rifles and checked for survivors. There were three trying to crawl away each missing a limb. We fired down on them quickly. When their bodies were lifeless, we were about to continue when another Raider came from an alley way wielding a missile launcher. This alley way was straight to our left.

"Barry!" I yelled pulling out a plasma grenade, "Move!" I lobbed the grenade the Raiders way just as he fired the missile. We both vaulted over the railing landing twelve feet below the road in the parking lot. The explosion ripped a chunk of the railing off and sent it flying. Another green explosion could be seen sending the Raider flying without a lower half of his body.

I got up checking my Laser Rifle for any damage as Barry scanned the area. "We're clear," He said, "Just a few Rads in the air." I saw it two. It showed there were twelve minuscule counts of Rads. Our suits stopped the Rads from harming us. The green afterglow was fading too.

"Alright," I ordered, "Let's help Gunny and the others." We jumped over a destroyed car and moved towards the employee's parking lot. We stood at the top of the sloped road seeing several Raider corpses with laser marks on them. There were around five left alive firing different types of guns. One had a heavy machine gun. A Raider dropped dead after a plasma bolt hit him coming from the lot.

These Raiders surrounded the entrance to the parking lot firing madly into it. The rest of our squad was in there fighting them off. We fired several laser bolts at the group of Raiders. Barry took out the one with the heavy machine gun and I fired at the rest of them diverting their attention. Barry and I moved in closely together firing on the Raiders. I shot down another as a laser bolt hit the last Raider in the head killing him instantly.

"Squad on me," Gunny said, "Regroup in the visitor parking lot." We all made our way there cautiously. Raiders were just mutation. If we saw one, we would exterminate it. "Looks like you got your wish Barry," I said as he leaned against a destroyed car.

"Yep," He said, "I can't wait to get back home and tell everyone else."

"Eh," Allen said indifferently, "It's not really a big deal. So we engaged an army of Raiders, so what?" He was checking his gun.

"Those were just stupid mutations," Max said, "They weren't a real threat." He had his laser rifle holstered and arms crossed.

"Quiet," Gunny ordered walking towards us, "We've survived an engagement of minor mutations in large numbers. If it wasn't for Thompson's quick thinking, we'd have had a hell of a time or we would've died." He stopped with his plasma rifle in one hand. "Just focus on our objective. That's all that matters right now."

"Yes sir," We responded respectfully. Gunny led us towards the side of the Red Racer Factory that was on the other side. We came to be overlooking a highway that was embedded in a large crevice that was held up by concrete. There were several destroyed cars everywhere and it looked like a straight path back to an intersection that would take us to Grayditch.

Gunny and Allen jumped down landing with a clump. "Come on you two," Max said who was standing at the edge. Barry and I were watching our squad's rear. I walked over as Max jumped off the ledge.

"Oh this is going to be pretty cool," Barry said ecstatically. He was following behind me. I holstered my rifle still walking.

"You know," I said, "This is a live-fire-in-the-field training exercise. Take it more seriously."

"I am," Barry responded. I jumped down and landed crouching. I pulled out my laser rifle scanning the area. Barry landed beside me crouching as well. Our three squad mates were using three destroyed cars as cover, being cautious if anything was to come up.

Everything was green so we continued down the street. It turns out, that we were being hunted. Everything went to hell when we were ambushed. I was following up the rear and watching all around. But suddenly in a blink of an eye, Allen had been snatched up by a long scaly arm from above.

"Ahhhhhhhh ugcccchaaaah," I heard from him as I saw another arm rip through his chest armor like butter.

"Fire!" Gunny yelled.

I raised my rifle and fired as many shots as I could at the beast up on the ledge but the lasers weren't even hurting it. It roared angrily and threw Allen's lifeless body into a vehicle, destroying the shape of it. The creature just jumped clean over us to the other side of the street on the other ledge. One of our laser bolts hit it in the head. It flinched and looked down at us. Then like some kind of wild dog, it roared into the night.

We stopped firing. "Maybe we blinded it," Barry inquired. Then it slumped off.

"It doesn't matter," Gunny said, "We're getting out of here for extraction. Now!"

"Uh Gunny?" Max said sounding frightened. He gestured behind us. On the street where we were five minutes ago, was not one, but eight of the same red reptilian bipedal creatures stalking toward us. Their white eyes were menacing and their claws were deathly long and sharp.

"Go, go, go!" Gunny yelled, "Back to Grayditch."

We were in a full out run. Well, as fast as we could be in this power armor. I looked back to see the eight creatures running straight at us.

"This is Gunnery Sergeant 9-X1," Gunny said through his head radio, "Our mission is compromised by Code 11-A2. We need an immediate extraction at Rally Point Alpha." We ran we occasionally fired a round off behind us trying to slow the creature's rapid movement.

"This is Blindhawk Three," Our Pilot responded, "Code 11-A2? Over?"

"Affirmative," Gunny said, "We're being chased by creatures that are nearly impenetrable by laser rifle and plasma rifle fire. We've got a man down as well."

"Proceed to extraction point Squad one," The Pilot responded, "We'll fly over to confirm threat. Over."

"Roger that," Gunny said, "Alright boys get ready to get out of here. Double time it."

"Yes sir," We all acknowledged. As soon as we said it we heard the distant sound of a Vertibird flying towards us. It came out over the buildings circling us then coming from behind the line of advancing creatures with its spotlight on. It shot over us and rotated arming its Missiles and Gatling laser mount.

"They are menacing," The pilot said over the head set, "Very well, opening fire." Suddenly it launched four missiles in quick succession and then fired its Gatling laser at the ones who survived. But afterwards, a horrific scene took place. More, maybe tens of hundreds started pouring off the ledges. "Holy shit," the Pilot said, "Squad one. I recommend you get your asses to the Extraction point. There's not enough ammo to take them all down."

"Roger that," Gunny said hopelessly, "Squad. Let's move." Oh we ran like hell in high water.

"Arming Mini Nuke bombs," The Pilot said, "Preparing for a clean sweep. It won't take them all out though." With that the hovering Vertibird became mobile again shooting back down the street. I don't know when, and I don't know if the Vertibird survived, but after that the ground shook and the noise filled the entire area with the entire sky lighting up. I kept running. Before I knew it, we were overtaken by a large red scaly figure who jumped down in the middle of us. I fell back and started firing at it from the ground. It then proceeded to swing a massive claw at Max. He was sent flying into a wall with a sickening crack. The creature advanced on his lifeless body ignoring the rest of us.

"Keep moving!" Gunny yelled. I got up and ran, leaving the monster to start devouring what was left of Max. We paced ourselves up a hill that led to Grayditch. This was a nightmare, but I couldn't let it get to me. I was a soldier and I had to act like one. We bolted around a corner seeing the Vertibird make its way over the buildings. Barry was far up ahead of us so he was there when it landed. He got in and ushered us in. But a horror came true. Another one of the creatures stood on a corner of one of the buildings staring down at the Vertibird.

"Oh my god," The pilot said, "We've got to lift off!" The Vertibird started hovering and attempted to take off. But it was tragically too late. The creature had leaped on the Vertibird slashing at the cockpit causing a small fire to emerge. The Vertibird just flew forward at a high speed into a building causing an explosion.

The chain of the explosion sent stone from the building flying all around. I hit the dirt avoiding the debris but Gunny had received a face full. But I wasn't too lucky. A large metal spike had penetrated my thigh. I got up, frightened, and limped over to him. My laser rifle was torn in two

"Sarge," I said to him traumatized, "Sarge. Fuck don't die sir."

He coughed taking off his helmet then threw it aside. "Son," He said with blood gushing from his mouth, "This is it for me soldier. This mission is a fail. Don't mourn for me, this is the Enclave life. I want you to make it back to base and tell them what happened."

"I can't Gunny," I said, "I can't run. I'll try though."

"That's what I expected of you soldier," He said smiling then winced, "In my book, you could be a Sergeant yourself. But you have to live first." There was a loud roar in the distance. "Go on Thompson. Make it home. I'm going to give these bastards a fare well gift." With that he pulled out a Mini nuke and two plasma charges. He started making a large bomb out of it.

"Fare well," I said nodding, "It's been an Honor."

"Yeah," Gunny said, "Just get moving soldier. Here, take this." It was a laser pistol. "You've got two clips. Use them well soldier."

With that I doubled back down the hill and towards a building that said "Super Duper Mart" on a sign. I wasn't stopping there. I had to get further away. I only had two clips and that wasn't going to save me for long. Not to mention I was dying of blood loss. So I kept moving pass the Mart up a hill wincing in pain as my leg became almost unbearable. When I stopped to take a break by using a car as support I turned back around to see a massive explosion coming from Grayditch. The explosion of Gunny's bomb….

I shook myself from a mournful state as it was against Enclave soldier code. I continued on my way. I finally stumbled over a rock in the middle of a street of the suburbs. I think the place was called Springvale.

But as soon as I did, I heard several grunts and hoarse growls. I looked up and saw that there was some kind of humanoid beings walking around. I could only see silhouettes of them "Help me," I uttered. They were humans, I hoped. One looked at me then tilted its head. I heard a sniffing sound and then a long growl. "Oh fuck," I muttered frightened and dragged myself towards…anywhere, "Fuck, fuck, damn it."

My hand came across some kind of hatch in the ground. I took it off and I tried to get in. I flopped down inside landing painfully. The heavy circle hatch hadn't come with me but it had definitely closed slightly. I dragged myself over to a spot from directly under the hatch. This place was cold and slimy. My Power armor was failing on me. I think I crushed a power cell or something. So I started to dismantle it from myself and laid it on a hill of material. Before I could do anything else I heard scratching coming from above. I pulled out my laser pistol aiming at what I now knew was a manhole and fired at something dropping down in with me. It was some kind of zombie looking thing. I shot it in the head. But another dropped down behind it. Then another after that, and another after that one. I fired laser rounds rapidly at all of them. I found myself firing at several beings on my last clip. I heard a "clunk" above my head. I looked up and the man hole was sealed again. They must've accidentally kicked the lid back in place or something.

I fired a round into the skull of one final mutation causing it to drop instantly. I had one shot left. And that was it. I was dying slowly as the blood was pouring from my injured leg. I wasn't surviving this. I was as good as dead. Surprisingly, I smiled. "Well Sarge," I said then coughed, "I've failed your request." I wasn't going to let myself die from blood loss.

I lifted my laser pistol inspecting it. "Top notch as usual," I said smiling, "It has served me well." I heard a distant hoarse howling, and it sounded like it was to my left through a metal door I hadn't noticed until now. "Looks like this isn't over." I sighed and there wasn't a single thought that wasn't mournful.

"I'm glad I can say I served the Enclave to my death," I said lifting the laser pistol once more, "I'm proud to be a true American." I quickly put the barrel to my temple and pulled the trigger….

….

….

….

….

_Captain McGuire_

_Enclave S.R.C (Search. Rescue. Clean-up) Division_

I looked at a destroyed Vertibird that had smashed through a building. Grayditch, for now had been covered by twenty Enclave personnel and Five Vertibirds. We received no word from the squad that was supposed to be commencing a field simulation of a patrol last night. When I first arrived here, many thoughts had went through my head. Had this squad gone AWOL? Had they been killed? What happened?

But then evidence pointing to the destroyed debris of a Vertibird wedged into a building. We have found all the bodies of the squad except one. Corporal Thompson. We had a motion tracker on the entire squad member's Power armor, but his left Grayditch and disappeared at a prewar suburban area called Springvale. We sent a sole Eyebot that way but its signal was lost. I sighed in frustration. From the evidence I concluded that Corporal Thompson had abandoned his unit to a group of red creatures that had been found amongst the bodies of the deceased Enclave. We were putting them in body bags and loading them on the Vertibirds for transport home. We dismantled the Wrecked Vertibird and left no evidence as to what happened to any mutations around.

We were all loading on the Vertibirds to transport us back to Raven Rock. This time, we were going in for good. Twenty years.

"Hey," I heard a Corporal say, "I hear that the President and his Cabinet are talking about some kind of Air force Base."

"Yeah," I heard another say, "It's going to be another place for the Enclave to station the construction of a mobile fortress there….."

….


	9. This side of the Potomac

Chapter 9: This side of the Potomac

"_I walk this path for a purpose. Whatever it is, wherever I venture, I have someone to back me up through this hellish wasteland. Through frightfulness, hardships, and struggles to the spoils of war. We as of now are together."_

….

The trip back to Megaton was uneventful. There wasn't much to come across. We took the route I traveled to the Super Duper Mart, back to the town. Deputy Wield was of course outside the gate flanked by Stockholm who was up on his platform looking around.

"This is where you live?" Kate asked quizzically.

"Yeah," I answered, "Megaton's a good place. There's a lot of nice people here….and there's an asshole called Moriarty. He's the only one there I think that is indecent." Kate didn't say anything on this. She seemed more into the fact that I lived here.

"Hello Deputy Wield," I said to the motionless robot.

"Howdy Partner," It responded, "Is this other human safe for Megaton?"

"Pretty sure bud," I answered it. Although "bud" was an abstract word to a machine.

"Very well," It said, "Have a nice day partner."

"Stockholm?" I asked backing up to where I could see him.

"I'm opening the gates Nathan," He called back from the switch, "You want out scavenging and brought back a girl huh? Funny how that works." My eye twitched at that statement. Not in anger, but it was because of embarrassment.

"The Super Duper Mart had a gang of Raiders in it," I responded, "I saved her from them."

"Alrighty then," Stockholm said then pressed the switch that opened the outer gates. Kate looked at the contraption like it was amazing.

"Well," I said pushing the cart through the gates, "You coming or what?"

"Sure," She said snapping out of her trance. She followed me through the last gate. Sheriff Simms was standing on the other side talking with Jericho who had new clothing. He wore an olive green duster over his own armor now.

"Well there he is," Lucas said turning to us, "And he brought someone else." Jericho looked at me looking pleased with himself. "Who's this?" Lucas continued.

"Kate," She spoke quietly.

"The name's Lucas Simms," Lucas said, "I'm the sheriff of this town and the mayor when needed. Enjoy your stay Ma'am."

"Jericho?" I asked, "Back already?"

"It didn't take me long to get instated," Jericho said, "Now I'm a Regulator. All I have to do is rid the world of evil."

"Sounds simple," I said grinning. He laughed.

"Yeah," He said humorously, "That's going to be easy. Anyways, I see you've got a good haul."

"Yeah," I said, "Moira will be happy about the information I've gathered. I spent the night in the mart with this bucket of bolts here." I knocked on its steel plating to prove a point."

"Speaking of which," Jericho said, "What are you going to do with it?"

"Take it apart," I said simply, "Find out how these things are made, and put it back together again."

"That's it?" Jericho asked dully. He probably didn't understand why I was doing this.

"If you want to learn," I continued, "do it through firsthand experience. You'll remember it a lot easier than just sitting down and studying something. Although, I might go ahead and make some modifications with it."

"It's your robot," Jericho said shrugging.

"First off," I said getting back to realizing I had gear in a shopping cart, "I'm taking this stuff to my house. Then I'm getting something to eat at the Brass Lantern."

"What about your research?" Lucas asked, "Shouldn't you get that to Moira?"

"I'm in no hurry," I said shrugging, "Just like with me finding my dad. Eventually I'll come across him, but I can't rush that kind of progress." I used the opportunity to pretty much drag my cart of scavenged items down one hill and up another to my home. Kate stuck close behind me as I walked up to my door and unlocked the door. Wadsworth was floating at the door way.

"Welcome home Master," It said delighted, "Everything is still in tip top shape. May I ask who this visitor is?"

"This is Kate," I said, "She's a friend."

"Yes sir," Wadsworth responded.

I pushed my cart to the center of the room asking Kate something. "So what are you going to do?" I asked her, "You staying in Megaton or leaving?"

"I don't really have a home," She responded looking around, "I was just wandering around when those raiders came. I was looking for a place to call a "home" though. Megaton feels like a good place to live."

"It is," I said absently, "But Lucas said it's getting crowded around here."

"Then how'd you get this house?" Kate asked questionably.

"Not trying to gloat," I responded, "But I disarmed a nuclear bomb that was in Megaton. Lucas gave me this house as a reward. Ever since then, I came up with the idea of helping some people and learning as much as I can."

"Learn what?" Kate inquired with a confused expression.

"Knowledge," I answered, "Like how robots are built, how to assemble a weapon, learning the behaviors of different fauna, discovering technology and using the fact to initiate the creation of new tech. Take this thing for example…" I gestured to the weird armor hanging up by chains, "…I don't know how to wear it properly and get it working. That's one thing on my to-do list."

Kate looked like she just seen a ghost.

"What is it?" I asked blinking.

"Where did you get this armor?" She asked inspecting the armor itself her face still pale in comparison.

"Well," I said sighing, "I went through hell getting it. We had a group of mercenaries who were hired to detonate a nuclear bomb. I stopped them from doing that by disarming the thing. They were put in the towns jail until sheriff Simms could figure out what to do with them. They escaped and we went to chase them. But they escaped when we miscalculated their stealth capabilities. But it was at night so it was too late to do anything about it. They blew up a car we were near and we all went flying. I just happened to land in a stupid basement. It ended up leading to a sewer where this armor was. I got Jericho to help me drag it back into town. Ever since then, I've been meaning to figure out how it works, but I've been doing oddball assignments for this Wasteland Survival Guide."

"This is power armor," She said immediately.

"I figured that," I answered, "After I couldn't get it moving the first go round I put it on. After that, I've been working on anything I can to gain some caps and help people doing something."

"So you're a mercenary yourself." She frowned on this.

"Technically no," I answered, "People just happen to give me a reward. Most of the time it's in caps. The only reason I accepted this house was because I was living on the streets of Megaton. As for this Wasteland Survival Guide, Moira insists on paying me something every time I come back with some information." Her facial expressions changed with each sentence I said. From a frown, to an indifferent look, to a frown again.

"So you've pretty much got it made huh?" Kate asked folding her arms. She frowned on this. This woman was confusing.

"In a sense of the word yeah," I said, "But I'm not gloating about it, well, intentionally. I'm just good with people, that's all. And if I say I'm going to do something, then I will. Or die trying."

She was contemplating something. What, I didn't know. "It's your choice I guess," She shrugged it off, "Anyways Nathan, are you sure there's not any more homes that can be lived in?"

"Well," I responded, "There is the common house. But Lucas said it's got twenty people living in it already. Moriarty rents rooms for those who need one, but he also has a prostitute who visits you every night. Plus he charges around a hundred caps a night."

"So I'm screwed."

"Well not really," I responded, "I've got a spare room upstairs that's not being used."

She looked up at the stairs. "Go on," I said, "It's the first door up there. I'll see about getting a mattress at the Craterside Supply."

While she was exploring the house, I took the time to check everything off that I had in the basket and cataloged the food and medical supplies I had. The Protectron was out the cart and standing up and deactivated. I took out the ammo and the weaponry placing them on shelves. I had a good variety of them. I had a total of four N99 pistols that were brought back, Two Hunting rifles, two Assualt Rifles, two semi-automatic N99's, ten Grenades, five Land Mines, and two bottle cap mines. I also gained four combat knives, another bat, and a baton. The medical supplies included twenty Stimpaks, ten Buffet, twelve jet, sixteen Mentat boxes, nine psycho, six Med-X, twenty Rad-Away, and ten Rad-X. I happened to glance above me to see Kate leaning on the railing of the walkway watching me work.

I made it a point to walk up to my room and copy all the notes I had taken on the little adventure to the Super Duper Mart. That way, Moira will have a copy, and so will I. Once that was done and over with, I took Moira's copy along with me down to the first floor.

"Hey Kate," I said, "Do you want to come with me? I'll show you around town while we're at it."

"Sure," She said eyes lighting up. With that we went to the Craterside supply. Along the way to the Craterside Supply, I pointed out everything in town. I intentionally didn't point out the saloon for spite against Moriarty. So we went into Moira's shop and she was just finishing up with a Megaton Settler.

"Hello Buck," I said to her bodyguard who was leaning on the wall like usual, arms folded as well.

"Hey kid," He said freely, "Back so soon?"

"Yeah," I said, "Just dropping off some info on that guide Moira and I are writing."

"Figured," He responded.

"So Nathan," Moira said ecstatically, "Have you finished that little research trip?"

"Yeah," I answered and put the documents on the counter. "I've also cataloged all the food and Medical supplies I found."

"Did you keep the supplies?" Moira asked, "I just got a shipment of food and Medical supplies so I don't need them."

"Yeah," I answered, "Read over it if you want. I've been detailed on it as promised."

She looked through it really quick and nodded. "Okay," She said, "Here's your payment and something extra. It's a sanitizer for food and drinks. It basically takes away more than half the Rads you would receive otherwise."

"Thanks," I said as she gave me two hundred caps, "I'm here for something else though."

"What is it?" Moira asked looking eager to read over my work.

"Kate?" I said turning to her, "Tell her what you need for your room other than a shelf, a chair, and table." Those were already in the room.

"A single bed?" She asked, "That's all."

"You know you can get more right?" I said.

"Yeah," She said shortly, "But that's all I need."

"How much for it Moira?" I asked wondering what kind of a person wouldn't want to spend money.

"Thirty caps," Moira said and I gave her thirty.

"Mind if I browse?" I asked.

"Sure," She said shrugging. I knew she probably trusted me enough.

"Just don't try anything," Buck said gruffly.

"Message clear," I answered. I just started looking around for some stuff, whether it would be junk, machinery, weapons, or clothes. But I found a few things of interest. One was a Key Cutter which was fifty caps. There was a schematic paper of some kind of launching contraption called the Rock-it Launcher. Moira said she'd give me a discount on it because she liked my research so much. It would be one hundred caps. I browsed through the books and weapons she had. I decided that I'd buy weapons off of Lucky. She did have a Workbench which was one hundred and ten caps. I had a total of eight hundred and forty three caps as of now and now I was losing three hundred and sixty caps. I bought them all. As Moira was still reading my research, Kate and I spent the time moving everything to the house.

"You hungry?" I asked Kate setting up the Work Bench near the balcony door. She nodded. Her cheeks were red so I figured she was coming down with some kind of sickness. "You feeling okay?" Regardless I checked my Geiger counter on her. She had fifty Rads.

"Yes," She said looking slightly redder.

"Sit," I said gesturing at the chair.

"I don't want to," She pouted still red.

"Your rads are up," I insisted, "Let me treat them."

"Oh," She said looking relieved. I pulled out a syringe and a Rad-Away Pack. Her long sleeve shirt was too tight so she couldn't roll up her long sleeve. Instead, I found her taking off the shirt. I turned away. She was definitely not afraid to show herself like that, which was strange. After a few seconds she finally spoke up. "Are you going to give me the shot or what?"

I turned around to see her still there having her front covered up. My legs felt like cement. I shook it off. I continued to vaccinate her. At least she had a bra on. When it was all done and over with, her Rads were at zero. I turned around as she put her shirt back on. There was something different about this woman. It wasn't just her keeping secrets, it was that she was…different from other people I've met. Zero Rads….I'd question her later. I moved her bed upstairs trying to shake myself from these thoughts.

"You mentioned something about food?" She said appearing in her doorway as I was about to walk out. That was the single most random thing she could say out of nowhere like this.

"Uh yeah," I said blinking, "The Brass Lantern's the only place to get something to eat, unless you want me to cook something from here."

"Brass Lantern," She said instantly.

"Okay," I said shrugging. So we decided to head to the Brass Lantern which was a short walk away. Jenny looked at us funny when we arrived.

"What can I get you two?" She asked us.

"The steak?" I asked.

"Uh," Was all Kate spoke. I looked at her.

"Order anything," I said sighing. What was it with her?

"Um the steak I guess," She mumbled looking the opposite direction of me. I didn't realize it but there was an amused expression on my face. I finished my food long before she did. When she did finish after a godforsaken fifteen minutes, I got up and decided that it was time to get started on some research. Kate tailed me to the house and watched as I took notes on the Protectron's structure and its outer robotic parts. After that I took the metal casing off and inspected its internal circuitry and mechanical parts. This wasn't as complex as I thought it would be.

Overall after taking it apart, and incidentally finding a construction manual in its compartment, I was finished after putting it back together. I don't know if Kate watched me do this for an hour, but I was pretty stiff. I couldn't reprogram the robot without a Programming Module. If I had even a basic one, it would help out a lot. Shaking my thoughts off, I walked up into her room. She wasn't there. I looked around inside the rest of the house to find that she wasn't anywhere. I finally found her on the deck of the balcony. She was lying down on a prewar lawn chair soaking up the sun's rays. Her shirt was rolled up exposing her abdomen. One arm was covering her eyes as if she was asleep. The long shirt had to be hot on her. She was sweating like crazy.

"Kate," I stated.

She didn't move. "Kate," I said again.

"Huh?" She moved with a stir. She looked up at me, "Oh it's you Nathan." She got up looking disturbed.

"Who were you expecting?" I asked blinking.

"Oh uh no one," She said drowsily, "Just a dream." She glanced at me and got up.

"You could get sunburned laying out like that," I responded, "Why don't you come inside?"

"Okay," She said. To prove my point, I made a joke.

"You see," I responded, "Your face is red, the sun already did a number on you."

"Haha," She responded whisking by me. I grinned. "Come on Doc. Is there anything to do around here?"

"Yeah," I said, "But you have to ask around to find something to do. Me? I came up lucky with the Wasteland Survival Guide." We walked inside, her giving me a slightly confused look.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked as I closed the door behind us.

"Well," I said scratching the back of my head, "Moira randomly asked me if I'd help her. I immediately became interested in helping write the book. That's where I'm heading now. I want to see where Moira wants to research next."

"But it's almost night time Nathan!" Kate responded quickly.

"Oh I know," I said plainly, "But I might as well get ready to head out for tomorrow." She shrugged deep in thought.

Moira was ecstatic when we walked in the door. Evidence included her brushing off a customer to speak with me. "Nathan!" She yelled instantly. I jumped.

"Moira," I said simply, "How do you like it?"

"It's A-mazing!" she responded grinning ear to ear, "Are you here for more work?"

"Ha," I uttered, "Yeah, I'll start tomorrow as soon as I figure out where I'm going next."

"Actually," Moira said delicately completely weird for her previous personality phase, "Radiation is next."

"Okay," I said plainly, "What do I have to do? Go to collect some Irradiated water?"

"Welllllll," She dragged out, "No. You kind of need to, um, get yourself irradiated."

I stared at her blinking. Comprehension just flowed through me like a Brahmin trampling on me. "Huh?"

"Yeah," Moira said, "I knew you'd say something like that. No one wants to become irradiated." Kate seemed to think I had some kind of sense in me because she had one of _those _expressions.

"No, no, no," I said, "You misinterpret my confusion. How am I going to get irradiated in the first place?" Kate's expression completely faltered.

"What about where you dumped all that liquid radiation from the Nuke?" Moira asked.

"That may work," I said, "But because it's not concentrated anymore, it will take a while to get a good dose. How much radiation are we talking here?"

"I believe your Geiger counter can keep track of the amount of Rad's you can take," Moira replied, "two hundred should be enough for a simple description of what we're aiming at here. But for excellent results six hundred rads would make the research into the effects more accurate."

I sighed while grunting. "Fine," I said lowly, "You coming Kate?" I sighed again before she could answer.

"Why would you willingly do this?" Kate demanded confused.

"Other than the book," I replied shrugging, "For the hell of it, I guess." I looked at her indifferently. She stared back at me with a look in her eye, one I couldn't understand at the time.

"Fine," she said frowning, "Just don't go ghoul okay?" There was something in her voice. It was half annoyance and half concern.

"I won't," I said grinning amused. Her expression faltered again and her eyes darted away.

I found myself out at the irradiated dump. Kate was frowning at me, arms folded. Jericho curious to see what I was doing, walked out to see what was going on. I was still not used to his regulator uniform. He had a cigarette hanging between his lips.

"I've seen some fucked up shit Nathan," He said as I was taking off my overcoat, "But this is taking the cake. Who in their right mind would do something this senile?"

"Who in their right mind would willingly want to get high off of jet?" I countered, "While trying to aim a gun when they're so high they piss themselves staggering around like a drunken Brahmin?"

"Touché," Jericho said grinning. I took my shirt off to become shirtless. I took my boots off and pulled out my combat knife to cut my pants to make shorts. I just literally plopped down in the puddle knees in the air and my arms wresting on them. I watched my Geiger counter as my rads went up….._joy._

After about five minutes of silence and I was only at fifty Rad's. "Having fun yet?" Kate asked me sounding amused at my boredom. She sat on a rock, arms folded.

"It's fantastic," I replied coyly. I almost grinned seeing it from her point of view. _Damn, I look like an idiot_. I smiled inwardly and waited it out.

After almost an hour I got up and stood out of the water for about five minutes drying off. My Rad's were up at six hundred forty two. The sun had been at dusk casting an orangey glow over the wasteland. "Feeling all warm inside?" Kate asked. Jericho had decided to leave thirty minutes ago.

"Tingly," I shot back. She grinned. "Okay let's get to Moira before I start rotting. I don't have a problem with Ghouls but I don't want to be one either."

We made our way back into Megaton and into the Craterside Supply. "Nathan you're back," She said gleefully, "Oh my you're glowing!" I checked myself over. Bulllllll crap!

She giggled. "Just kidding," She said taking out a clipboard, "So tell me what you've learned today."

"That Irradiated Pools of water are colder than they appear," I answered nonchalantly, "Scratch that. With this much radiation, you will become sick and disoriented. Symptoms are nausea, vomiting (I haven't done that yet), disorientation, loss of perceptive balance, weakness and soreness in muscular system, and dehydration. As for a cure, I'd say a hell of a lot of Rad away."

"Well Rad-away will definitely work," Moira said, "but I wanted to see if I could try out a new medicine on you."

"A new medicine?" I repeated intrigued.

"Yeah it's one I cooked up myself," Moira said beaming. Suddenly I wasn't so interested in the medicine anymore. She must have sensed that because she stated something that she thought would reassure me. "Oh it's perfectly safe. It won't kill you or cause medical problems. Please try, please, please, please, please!" She jumped up and down while saying this. She was _really _childish.

"Okay then," I said giving in after grunting, "Make it quick."

"It's by injection so you won't have to consume anything," Moira said seriously. She pulled out a syringe that was full of green liquid. I really hoped it wasn't poisoned. She injected it into my arm and immediately all my Radiation disappeared. I instantly started to feel better. But something was off. I felt better, better than before.

"Uh Moira?" I asked. She seemed to know what I was going to ask.

"Um yeah…." She said bashfully, "There was a teeny tiny um, mutation, ah uh um a side effect."

"I thought you said there were none." I said it with annoyance in my voice.

"No no," She said, "I said there were no health risks or hazards."

"Then what is the side effect?" Kate joined in.

"Chill out you two," She said sounding cornered, "Nathan the side effect is known as Radiation Regeneration. It's similar to the healing powers of Ghouls when they're in Radiation. The side effect is very rare, but I didn't think you'd actually get it."

I looked at her annoyed. "So what," I said, "Now If I get shot, I'm going to heal the wounds quicker?"

"Only if you have a high dose of Radiation in you," Moira said, "If you're in an area with secondary radiation, the pain of wounds will dull down. So in a way you're lucky. You just found a new way to survive."

"Yippy for me," I said sarcastically. I would've loved to be the same either way. "But thank you," I said sighing, "I guess it isn't so bad. So before I go home for the night, could you tell me what else you had in mind as far as research?"

"Well I've got a few places in mind but I'm having trouble continuing," Moira said, "A bit of Writers Block is what it is."

"Well let me see what you've gathered so far," I replied.

"Sure come on up into my lab," She said.

Kate followed behind me as we climbed on up to her lab. She had a specific spot set for her research into the Wasteland Survival Guide which was on a desk. Her copy of the Research I put into gathering food, water, and medical supplies were lying on the table stacked neatly. There was a map of the Capitol Wasteland hanging up now, pinned to the wall.

"Here," Moira said giving me a notebook, "Take a look. This is the list of topics I wanted to go through."

I looked at the list and her bad handwriting with it.

_Differences in Vaults and the Wasteland_

_Food, Water, and Medical Supplies_

_Health risks with Radiation_

_Explosives_

I looked up at Moira who responded with, "That's all I got so far. I don't know what else to research."

"No offense," I said, "But if you want to research for a Survival Guide, you've got to expand beyond this stuff."

"So then what do you think I should do?" Moira asked. I looked at her going over the facts of the current research we had put in this book so far.

"Well," I said, "Seeing how all of our current research is on major health concerns right now, let's do something involving medicine. Why don't you start on a mini-encyclopedia on medicine like Stimpak, Buffout, Jet, and Rad-X? We'll make those in the first section. While you're working on that, tomorrow I'll look into the Explosives."

"Okay," Moira said perking up more…if that's possible, "I'll also look up some more topics."

"So where do you think I should start?" I asked her, "You know the Capitol Wasteland more than I do."

"Well," Moira said, "For explosives I was thinking about you going into a Minefield."

I blinked. She _was _crazy. "Um Moira," I said simply, "I'm not going into a minefield. How the _fuck_ am I supposed to see them if they're under the dirt?"

"Oh you can see them," Kate interjected, "Mine's aren't underground, but they blend in well with the ground. They're small cylinder-like objects with a red light on them. If you get in its motion detection range, you have three seconds before it goes off. In that amount of time, you can run up to it, flip a protection mantle that covers a button to disarm it."

"I'm guessing you've done so before," I asked.

"Yeah a lot," Kate replied, "Remember I came from out West. It was a long journey. Anything could've happened." There was that feeling again. She was hiding something. I quickly shook it off.

"Alright whatever," I said, "I'll do it, just tell me where to go."

"It's here," Moira said pointing it out on her map. I programmed the coordinates in my Pipboys map making program and that was it. "If you can bring a land mine back so I can examine it, I'll give you an extra reward."

"Sure," I said nodding, "It's getting late, we'll see you later."

"Alright," Moira said, "I'll be sure to get started on that Encyclopedia you mentioned."

"Okay," I said looking at Kate particularly her clothes, "First, before we go, I just remembered. Kate, do you want some new clothes?"

"What?" She asked unprepared, "Uh sure."

"Moira?" I asked.

"Sure," She responded, "Come with me Kate."

I waited at the front of the shop with Buck. The two women took a long time going through clothes. It was a girl thing I guessed. I took the opportunity to try and strike up a conversation with Buck.

"So Buck," I asked him, "How exactly did you come under Moira's employ?"

He relaxed a bit from his usual stiff attitude. "Well," He said, "I used to live up in the New York Ruins. I grew up there. But when I was eighteen I decided to take on a Mercenary job and I eventually ended up down here. I found Megaton when I was supposed to escort my client here and I'd get paid. I saw an advertisement for a Mercenary made by Moira so I started to work here."

"How long have you worked for her?" I asked confused.

"Almost a year now," He replied, "She pays me well, though I've got enough from her to settle down here in Megaton so I might just let her pay me every two months instead weekly."

"I guess it's a good way to keep things going smoothly around here," I said.

"In a sense," He spoke.

"Do you miss it back in uh the New York Ruins?" I asked him.

"Not in the slightest," He said, "The place is a feral ghoul infestation waiting to happen, if not waiting, it is. People there had to watch out what they did there. At night Ghouls come out from the sewers and the large buildings the sun doesn't hit and wander the streets. Super Mutants are found all over the place up there mostly in the warehouse areas. Raiders are horrible up there. They're all over the place. It's hard to keep track of them too."

"It's that dangerous huh?" I asked.

"Oh yeah," Buck said, "But there were a lot of settlements there. A lot of places to explore too, and I bet there's still buildings and sewers that have yet to be entered since the Great War's bombing. However, most people steered clear of the Military facilities there, they were the most dangerous of all."

"Why?" I asked confused.

"People would go near then and wind up dead the next day," Buck said, "It was like a force field of gas surrounding them. One person went in with a Hazard gas suit and made it in but his suit was breached. He died the next morning in extensive care."

"Yeesh," I said shivering slightly, "Well that's got to suck." Before our conversation could continue, Kate and Moira came up.

"Thanks Moira," Kate said coming up with some clothes and a backpack in her arms. Moira was right behind her.

"No problem," Moira said, "Don't worry about paying." She spoke to me in particular. "It's all on the house. I can't get people to buy these clothes to save my life."

"Thank you," Kate said sounding grateful, "So Nathan, are we going home now? It's almost nine o'clock. "

"Yeah," I spoke, "Good Night you two."

"Night," Moira said yawning.

"See you later kid," Buck said nodding.

We walked out the store, Moira locking it from the inside behind us, and looked at the night life of Megaton. Moriarty's Saloon was in business, the outer gates were closing, and various residents who weren't planning on getting drunk were closing in for the night.

"This place is lively at night huh?" Kate asked sounding astounded.

"It's only early," I responded simply, "chances are it gets even more lively around midnight." Together we walked home without another word until we reached inside.

"So before we go to bed and I leave in the morning," I asked her, "Do you want to come with me to the Minefield?" Her eyes darted from mine to somewhere else. "Or do you want to stay here in Megaton where it's safe?"

"I-I guess I'll go with you," She said sort of nervously.

"Are you sure?" I asked, "I don't want it to seem like you _have_ to go."

"Yeah I'm sure," She replied a little more confidently. I stared at her unmoving for a second.

I smirked. "Alright," I said, "We'll prep for the trip in the morning. For now let's catch up on some much needed sleep."

"Okay," She said deep in thought.

"Wadsworth," I commanded, "Deactivate for the night." The robot had been floating aimlessly around the room.

"Yes sir," He replied and obediently deactivated in his closet. I helped Kate with getting her two arm-full of clothes up to her room and sat them on the shelf. I caught myself staring blanking at her. So many things ran through my head about her. Most of it was suspiciousness. I shook all of it off before she turned around and proceeded to my room. I heard her door close from mine. I took off my hooded coat and got out of my jumpsuit, hanging it on the railing outside my room. I came back in kicked the door closed, turned the lights off, and finally crashed into bed. I made sure my Pipboy alarm clock was on before finally going to sleep. It has been a long day.

…

The next morning I was up before daylight. I already started to get prepped for the journey. I put my armored jumpsuit back on, it being dry now and slipped my cloak over it. I walked down to where I had all my weapons on the shelf. I brandished my silenced N99 and put it in its holster. I almost forgot I had another resident in my house. I walked back up the stair and knocked on her door.

"Kate," I asked through the door, "You awake?" There wasn't an answer. I cracked the door open and could see her sprawled out on her bed under the covers, her back to the door. I could see the faint line of a bra strap. I closed the door. How many awkward situations could I get in with this woman? _Fuck._ "Kate wake up," I said knocking on the door, "Wake up Kate!"

"Ummmnnnnhhh," I heard her uttered, "I'm awake Nathan, jeez! Give me a second." I smiled inwardly.

I walked back down to the weapons looking through everything. Kate came down shortly after with new clothes on. She wore a pair of jeans, a tight shirt under a light blue duster that had a hood on it like mine. I nodded as she came in.

"Not much of a morning person are you?" I asked.

"Not really," She said, "Although I couldn't sleep when I was in the hands of those Raiders."

"I imagine not," I answered as the thought of what they were going to do to her went through my mind. I shook it from my thoughts. "I'll let you sleep in for now on, okay?"

"Thank you," She said sweetly.

"So you do know how to handle a gun don't you?" I asked her.

"A little," She responded smiling slightly.

"Okay then," I said, "Take whatever you're familiar with."

She looked through the weapons as I took my shotgun and slung it over my back and a hunting rifle. Kate immediately took an assault rifle and an SMG. I handed her a Combat knife.

"Close quarters," I said as I strapped mine to my belt, "Do you mind carrying rations for the trip?"

"No," She said, "I'll pack them right now." With that she packed all the food she could into her backpack. I made sure my first aid kit was good and ready. Before long with ammo, food, water, medical supplies, and weapons, we were ready.

I activated Wadsworth and had it watch the house. Kate and I preceded to the Megaton gates. I looked at my map at various ways to get to our destination.

"The Minefield is on the other side of the river," I said, "I think we should double back to the Super Duper Mart. There was a bridge near there."

"That's fine," Kate said, "I don't really like swimming anyways." So that was it, we started off. The sun wasn't even up yet as it was barely six o'clock.

"Hey Nathan?" Kate asked as we got on the road near Springvale and turned towards the farm house on the hill, "How come you got up so early?"

I chuckled. "It's just a habit," I said as we walked around a car that had an ant carcass near it, it was the same one I was attacked by a two days ago.

We made our way up the sloped road towards the farm house. By that time, I heard a familiar gurgled shriek. I turned around and at the bottom of the slope near the ant Carcass a ghoul jumped down from a rock above. It shrieked again and several more poured from the cliffs towards the ant carcass. They began to devour it.

Kate was about to pull out her Assault Rifle. I stopped her. "No," I said frowning and keeping my eyes on the pack of ghouls, "Leave them be."

"But they're feral," Kate said, "They'll kill us."

"Not if we're quiet," I responded, "The ghouls do not like the intense heat the sun gives off. They prefer night time and dark underground areas."

"How do you know that?" She asked.

"Educated guess," I said, "I never see a feral in the day time. Now come on, we'll be going the opposite direction. Hopefully they won't pick up our scent."

"O-okay," She said holstering her assault rifle.

We kept moving down the road. The Super Duper Mart was in sight. It was still a good walk away. The field to the right of us was still open. Last time there was something out there. I didn't know what it was, but it was big. This morning, I didn't see anything like that. We had spent nearly an entire hour walking to get to the bridge. The sun was peaking over the mountains like it was taunting the wasteland at this point. The bridge was part of a road, or what was left of it. It wasn't destroyed like many of the ones that gaped over the Potomac and wasteland.

As we cross I couldn't help but notice something was off. It was like we were being watched. I saw something out the corner of my eye off to the side as we were almost half way. Kate apparently knew something was up too. "Nathan," She whispered.

"I know," I said, "Get ready." We stopped when four Raiders from came from on each side of the bridge where we were going to. They didn't have any guns at all. I gripped my silenced pistol holster. "Kate," I said, "let's try to double back real quick." We turned around and there were four more Raiders from where we were. "Never mind," I said.

"Okay fellas," I said out loud, "There's no cause for violence here. Let us pass and no bloodshed will come."

"Do you know what we are kid?" One said, "We're Raiders. This is what we do for a living."

I frowned. "So you're proud of the life you're living?" I asked, "You better not be."

"Or what?" Another said.

"We'll kill you," I said instantly. They started to move towards us.

"Do you know what we're going to do to you kid?" The first said, "We're going to kill you and fuck that girl next to you. Yeah we'll keep her for a while, until she gets boring then we'll kill her." That hit a nerve. Those thoughts came back to me.

"I'm warning you," I said seeing the stiffness in Kate, "Last chance. Repent or die."

"Oh whatever," The Raider said, "Alright boys let's get 'em!" They all charged.

"I got the ones behind us." I said immediately pulling out my silenced pistol and placed for shots in their heads except one who got too close. I put my pistol away and immediately dodged a sledge hammer as I heard Kates Assault Rifle going off behind me. I immediately made several jabs at the Raider and turned around for maximum momentum to back-fist the Raider in the face causing him to drop the sledge hammer. He went to punch me but I grabbed his arm, twisted it around and kicked his leg in breaking it. He fell to his good knee screaming bloody murder. He was in that much pain. I pulled out my pistol and shot him in the head ending his suffering. Killing wasn't something I was proud of, but it was either me or them.

I turned to see how Kate was fairing. She had killed them all with that assault rifle. "Nice," I said nodding at her, "Check their bodies. There might be something useful."

"Alright," She said checking out her set of corpses. I picked only went for one weapon. It was some kind of sword.

"Hey Kate," I said, "Isn't this some kind of sword used by the Chinese?" I turned around to see her with not one sword, but two.

"Yep," She said, "I used to have one before I got captured by the Raiders."

"Well," I said to her smiling, "That was exciting. Nothing like a good skirmish to wake you up huh?" She smiled at this.

"Whatever Mr. Ghost," She said teasingly, "Let's keep moving okay?"

"Alright alright," I said grinning. We continued across the bridge. Suddenly, something quick and agile vaulted over the railing of the bridge and tackled me to the ground. It was a dog that had no fur on it. I grabbed its neck as it went to bite my throat.

"Nathan!" Kate said in panic. I used a free hand to pull out my combat knife and stab it through the jaw, killing it after it whined. I got up breathing heavily.

"That scared me worse than the Raiders," I said putting my knife away, "_Shit_!" Kate looked like she just saw a ghost.

"Are you okay?" She asked me weakly.

"Yeah," I said sighing, "I'm alright. Don't worry." Once again, we continued our journey up a road that traveled up a slope." The vehicles along the roads were of course destroyed. There were traffic barriers that were still intact while others were reduced to piles of rubble. After finally getting up the slope, I looked at the map on my Pipboy. We were still due for another day hike. The Wasteland was huge. Right now we were on the outskirts of the DC ruins. I didn't know them that well and I also wasn't going to go and we found ourselves on the street with several buildings that were jammed together and had at least two or three floors. One in particular caught my eye. It was an old prewar gun store. It was most likely ransacked a long time ago but it was still worth it.

"Nathan," Kate said, "There's something up ahead." I looked up the road to see it. It was walking our way.

"This way," I said pulling out my shotgun. I strode quickly towards the door of the store and opening it. Kate came in behind me. We hid behind a display bar, our guns pointing at the entrance. If it looked hostile when I got a clear look at it, it'll die quickly.

I heard several elongated footsteps. Curiously, I crept to the window of the store and peered out. Kate mouthed, "What are you doing?" I put my finger up to my mouth to quiet her. My heart was pounding. What the hell could cause massive footsteps like that? But then I saw movement. I put my back to the wall on the edge of the broken window seal. I saw them. Huge, hulking green men with ridiculous muscles walking down the street, they were massive. Their gums were exposed revealing yellowish teeth. I'd hate to get up close and personal with that face. The breath could probably melt stone. They stood ten feet tall and most wore pants and nothing else. But there were three armored ones. Two looked like their helmets had tin cylinders on them and the other had a sharp angular spoke on it. Those three were the only ones with Assault Rifles. The other eight didn't have any weapons at all. They spoke in hoarse words that sounded strangulated.

"Hungry," One said.

"I want to eat human," Another said.

"Wait," One said, "Hold brothers." They stopped where they were, which incidentally was right in front of the store. One of the hulking men had his back to the window blocking the view from all around. "I smell human," He said. My heart sank. I looked back at Kate who was looking pretty…..pretty scared. I gazed behind her to see a doorway. It looked like there was a stair case. I quickly moved towards Kate and made as little noise as possible.

"Come on," I whispered. She didn't move, it was like she was petrified. "Kate," I whispered frantically tugging on her arm. She wasn't budging. "Damn it woman." I picked her up and slung her across my shoulder by the waist and pretty much went Ninja up the stairs. I got to the second floor which had a hole in the roof and a thin beam that was just where I could climb out. I heard one of our giant green "friends" tear the door off the hinges and proceed inside.

"Don't try hide," One said, "I smell you _human_!"

Most likely out of adrenaline, I quickly scaled the beam to the roof, and looked around. There was a window that was just wide enough for us to crawl through. I tossed my backpack in and took Kate's off her and did the same. I checked inside to make sure nothing was in there. It was an empty storage room. "Kate get in," I whispered. She nodded and shakily climbed through. I peered into the hole in the roof to see a massive green figure walk underneath the hole looking around. I ducked out from it in my line of sight as it spoke.

"Come out Human!" It demanded hoarsely, "Now!" I looked back at the window Kate had crawled through then back down the hole. The Green man growled and sniffed. _Fuck._ I quickly got up and ran for the window to get through it in lightning speed. Kate was breathing heavily. I peered back through the window to see the huge monster climbing out the hole. I put my hand over Kate's mouth to try and muffle her breaths and put my back against the wall. The sounds of footsteps could be heard. The heavy hulking footsteps were nearly impossible to miss, as if every step was a single second closer to our deaths. I felt a warm trickle of liquid slide down the hand over Kate's mouth. _Shit, Kate don't do it. Don't make a sound, please._ But I couldn't blame her because I was seriously contemplating guerilla warfare here. My hand clenched the barrel of my shotgun. He must have been at the window because I heard hulking breathing and low growls like he was some kind of animal looking for a next meal. What the fuck were these things?

"Brother!" I heard another giant green man yell, "Get here now! We leaving! Other Brothers in huge field in city."

"Coming!" The huge thing said loudly. It _was _right there, but now it was walking away. I heard what sounded like gravel moving and then a loud pounding against the ground after that. The thing jumped off the _freaking_ building.

I don't know how long we stayed like that, hidden and our bodies like statues but it was better to stay hidden and let them leave without the endangerment of our lives. My muscles were sore having to carry her up the stairs and on the roof and then the immediate flinching stop in here as we hid. Adrenaline had finally started to fade away and my body became a little more responsive. I breathed easier, which felt like I hadn't taken a breath in a long time. _Sweet, sweet air._

"Kate," I said though it sounded like a frog was stuck in my throat, "You okay?" I removed my hand from her mouth and she went to pieces. She wound up in a tight ball nodding in a flinching style.

"Listen," I said trying to calm her, "I'm going to go out there and see if they're gone. If you hear gunshots, that's probably me killing the bastards."

I quickly got up and vaulted through the window with my shotgun in tow. I rolled, not intentionally as my feet gave out, I quickly got back on my feet keeping low and got closer to the edge of the roof at the front. I peered down, not seeing anything but the rubble they had once stood around. The weird mutants were gone and our chances of living just became slimly higher. Making sure they were truly gone I checked the floors below for any sign of the colossal men. This place was empty. A wave of relief filled my body up so quickly my blood vessels seemed to have been introduced to icy cold water on a hot ass day. I walked solemnly back up the stairs as my thigh muscles throbbed. Hopefully Kate was okay. I've never seen a woman so scared in my life. Hell, I couldn't talk, I thought I was going to shit myself. That reminded me to check my pants before I climbed up to the roof.

Kate whimpered slightly as I climbed through the window. "It's me," I responded to it, "Listen we're safe now, they're gone."

She breathed easier releasing a lot of stress that had built up in her chest. I leaned my shot gun against the wall. A silenced pistol lay on the floor. I checked my holster. Mine wasn't there so this one was evidently that one. It must've fell out sometime right around when we entered or I just left. I picked it up and sat on an overturned bucket. I rested my elbows on my legs and a slouched over. The sweat was rolling off my face and I was a bit dusty to boot. My pistol was still in my left hand with my finger over the trigger guard.

"What the hell were those things?" I asked out loud, not really expecting an answer.

"Super Mutants," Kate spoke finally wiping the tears away, "They're the most dangerous creatures in the world. They capture and eat humans like we're some sort of animal they hunt. They're super strong, with the ability to lift a destroyed car, they can smell blood easily, and they have average eyesight. They're intelligence is something compared to a vegetable though. Their only instinct is ferocious basic survival instincts; kill, eat, drink, and sleep. However, they can walk through radiation just like humans breathe."

"I might be pushing some boundaries," I said putting my silenced N99 away, "But how do you know so much about them?"

"I'd rather not say," Kate said, "Not right now. There are too many memories that are too painful. Let's just say I've ran into their kind before and it wasn't pleasant."

"Very well," I said respecting her wishes, "Wait, they smell human blood? Not their scent?"

"Yeah why?" Kate asked slightly confused.

"Well that one smelt something on us," I replied, "If it is blood that meant one of us is bleeding and it's not me."

"Oh," Kate said suddenly going red.

"Are you cut?" I asked slightly concerned.

"No um….it's," She started but trailed off, "Rather Private." It dawned on me then.

"Oh okay," I said shrugging it off, "Well there was nothing we could do about it then. You hungry yet? It's been almost four hours since we woke up." A change of subject would be a savior for Kate right about now.

"Yeah," she said sounding relieved. She went for her backpack and pulled out some canned goods and crackers. "I say this should be what we eat for now. Leave the good stuff for later."

"Understandable," I said nodding. So we sat there eating in peace. It was probably the ultimate boost of morale for right now. Hell we were both scared and had a right to be. Those green things were monstrosities. It was the first time I've seen one like that, and apparently Kate had had a run in with them before. The question is, why were they so hostile? They looked like men, only larger and green similar to an old superhero the Hulk.

"Hey Kate?" I asked her after I finished swallowing a salty cracker.

"Hmm?" She asked.

"Super Mutants," I said, "Are they all like the ones we just came across." Her face twisted like some horrid memory. It was like the subject was painful, which it probably was.

"Very little of them are friendly towards humans," She spoke heavily, "Back out west there were a lot of friendlies. But on the East Coast, you'd have a better chance of learning to fly than finding any 'good' Super Mutants. The Mutants here eat human like Feral Ghouls and Cannibals do."

"Hmmm so there's no compromising with them?" I asked.

"None," Kate replied.

"Well that sucks," I said sighing, "I guess they're just another way to die then."

"Pretty much," Kate commented throwing a wrapper down a hole in the floor.

I stood up and looked around our little hiding spot. With a little sprucing up, this place could be one hell of a hideout. There was only one way in here. The hole in the floor was the remains of a wooden staircase. That was a possible way out.

"Hey Kate," I said, "You want to see what we can scavenge before we head off?"

"Sure," she replied, "Hey before we do that, can I ask you something?" I was about to step through the window.

"Shoot," I said.

"How are you so Athletic?" She asked me which I was caught off guard, "I mean you grew up in a Vault didn't you? Isn't it cramped down in one of those things?"

"Are you talking about when I carried you up the stairs and climbed up to the roof?" I asked.

"Well yeah," She said indifferently.

"I may look like a knowledge nerd," I said grinning, "But I am more than that."

"What do you mean?" She asked me blinking.

"Well," I said, "I'm not uptight at all unless someone's life is in danger. I make it a point to help others and try not being a dick about things." She gave me a look. To that I tried to make her see it my way. "I'm not trying to be pompous either. I'm just not very good at pretending to be modest. Anyways, back on subject, in the Vault I used to exercise a lot. Pushups, pull-ups, and sit-ups were all I used to do growing up. Dad got me into it."

"How'd he manage that?" Kate asked.

"He told me I'd get fat and lazy," I replied simply, "It wasn't something I would like to happen to me at the time. I was a teenager raring to go. I was rebellious, hardheaded, but I never intentionally got in serious trouble. After I while I grew out of that stage and took up for the few who were around that were worth it."

"Who were these people?" Kate asked curiously.

"Well my dad for one," I said, "His partner Jonas. My best friend growing up, her name was Amata. She was the one who helped me escape, but stayed behind. There was also this kid who was the leader of a gang. His name was Butch. He might've turned out okay if his mom actually paid attention to him."

"His mom didn't care about him?" Kate asked.

"She spent her time in the bottle," I remarked, "It was Butches father. He shot himself due to a severe case of depression. After that, Butch became rebellious as a little kid wanting the attention of his mother but never got it. So he made the gang with his friends. Underneath all the tough talk, and attitude he was a good kid. He….just didn't like me or Amata."

"Why's that?" Kate asked.

"I don't know," I said shrugging, "He just did. I assumed he hated Amata because she was the daughter or our Vault Leader the Overseer. Me? I think he didn't like me because in school, I made good grades and didn't want to have anything to do with his gang. After that, I was public enemy number one to him."

"Oh," She said lightly. The tone of her voice just made me tense up for some reason.

"That's enough talk for right now," I said trying not to say it so "ass holy", let's just get started trying to find something in these buildings.

"Okay," Kate said. I went through the window leaving everything up here except my silenced pistol. She followed I jumped down to the floor below from the hole. This floor was completely cleaned out. There wasn't anything here except destroyed furniture and drawers full of dust. We proceeded to the next floor down with hopefully better results. The shelves were clean and everything. I checked the safe in an office that had been easy to pick open. There was a lot of different kinds of Prewar Money in it. Ones, fives, tens, twenties, fifties, and hundred dollar bills.

"Jeez," I said wiping my head, "is this stuff valuable?"

"Definitely," Kate said sounding in awe, "You can trade them for caps."

"How much are we talking here?" I asked.

"Well," She replied, "One dollar bills are worth five caps, Five dollar bills are worth twenty five, Ten dollar bills are worth fifty, twenty dollar bills are worth a hundred, fifty dollar bills are worth two hundred twenty five, and one hundred dollar bills are worth five hundred."

I started counting all the bills. "If what you're saying is true," I said after a while, "Then if we trade all of this to someone, we'll have enough for ten thousand three hundred twenty five caps."

"It's a bit absurd really," Kate said breathlessly, "How could our luck be this good?"

"I don't know," I replied, "I guess two hundred years passing and no one thought to stockpile this money." This was a definite boost of morale. "Come on. Let's see if our luck will hold out."

We continued to look around on the first floor. I looked around through the display cases and on the gun racks. There wasn't anything that I could see. I did happen to see a book shelf here. Most were ruined, but there was only one that looked hardly scathed. It was titled, "America's Gunslinger: Military Weapons."

I flipped through it. There were a lot of pictures of weapons in it and descriptions. "Hey Nathan," Kate said from in the office, "Come here and look at this." I heard some kind of creaking going on and then wood colliding with a wall. I walked towards the office, book in my hand.

"What is it?" I asked as I walked in.

"Some kind of trap door," Kate said aiming her assault rifle in it.

"Nice," I said pulling out my silenced pistol and a flashlight. I turned it on and pointed it down into the darkness. There was a ground in jumping distance. I hopped down into it landing with a thud. I pointed my pistol and flashlight around police style. There were a lot of crates down here. "Clear," I said. I moved out the way and Kate climbed down the ladder.

I looked for a light switch anywhere. Nothing…

"There sure are a lot of crates here," Kate said looking around, "You got another light?"

"It's up in my backpack," I commented.

"Shit," She said sighing, "alright." She stuck close to me, so close I could feel her breath on my neck. I walked up to one of the crates. I tried to open it. It was strapped down good and tight by some kind of plastic straps. I put my silenced N99 away and pulled out my combat knife to cut the straps off. I took off the lid and pointed my gun down in it. My heart sank.

"_Holy Shit_," I said exasperated almost not being able to get the words out. This basement, a secret one at that, just changed the name of the game for me. Luck had nothing to do with it. This place was now a treasure tomb. In this hellish wasteland, I had found one of many places that would never cease to amaze me. This kind of thing is amazing. It was probably owned by the biggest hoarder in Military Weaponry. The question was, what do we do with it all…..?

…


	10. Coping with a Tragic Change

**A/N: Starting here, there is no more rewrite. My cousin had allowed me to use his base story for this purpose and not much dialogue has changed from his writing to mine with the exception of details. He has given me permission to delete his LOTLW story after I inform those who are under his alerts and favorites of the change. From this point on, everything is original and planned out. **

**This chapter has some borderline M rated content. You've been warned.**

**Chapter 10: Coping with a Tragic Change**

"_Wasteland turns to hell in a matter of minutes and fate changes as well as your motives. All it takes is a trigger, loss, or traumatization to make it all happen. When that change comes, you find yourself more focused, determined; even if you don't realize it yet."_

Technology to its finest is too broad of a term for something like this. It was all military grade weapons, like it was going to be used for a counter assault. Either that or the man who owned the pawn shop was hoarding military weaponry. Kate and I looked through it all. It was a surplus and I wanted it. I started to imagine what it would look like in my house in Megaton, or the Armory there. Kate looked over at me with a glee in her eyes. There were Assault Rifles, SMG's, pistols, rifles, grenades, and Rocket Launchers.

"Let's keep this a secret," Kate said immediately, "We won't have to buy any weapons or ammo anymore. We can keep coming back here." I smirked. My thoughts drifted onto the weapons cache again. I really wanted one of those sniper rifles.

"Well duh!" I agreed. I realized again that we needed to get back on track and get to the minefield and finish the section of the Wasteland Survival Guide up. And hopefully, spend a little more time with Kate.

"Um Nathan?" Kate asked.

"Yeah?

"Um….never mind," She said unconfidently. One thing I knew about her, it was that she was shy.

I decided to bolster her confidence a little. "Hey when we finish up here," I said nonchalantly, "we're going to do something together. Okay?"

"Like what?" She asked intrigued.

"We'll figure something out," I answered.

"Target practice?" She asked.

"Maybe?"

I could have sworn I heard her say something along the lines like, _that went completely over his head._ There was an extremely awkward silence.

"Nate?"

"Yeah?"

"If I told you something," She said, "Would you tell anyone else?"

"Not without your consent," I replied.

"What would you say," She said beating around the bush, "If I told you I've never had a boyfriend?" My mind went into a flurry of thoughts. I decided to answer with something of the same caliber.

"I'd…..say I've never had a girlfriend? I replied with an unsure tone.

"Oh…." Kate said blushing, "That's good. Because….well…..I don't know how to say this. But….uh…." She sighed frustrated with herself.

I smiled. "Don't worry about it," I replied, "I don't think we should be talking about something like this on the road. Let's wait until we arrive home. Okay?" She nodded. "Okay then," I spoke, "Grab what you want. We'll come back sometime later okay?"

"Okay," Kate replied.

I didn't grab anything but one of the many Sniper Rifles. That's the only thing I lacked. She grabbed an Assault Rifle and we left the little weapons cache alone and locked away. We kept walking until we found out we were going to be leaving the main part of the city. Surprisingly, we met little danger. There were a few Radscorpions running around, but we managed to dispatch them easily. It wasn't much to deal with. Kate and I had eventually passed an old Gas station, and then crossed over into terrain of slopes for a good long while. It was strange out here as the outskirts of the DC ruins weren't so open. Eventually, we spotted a railroad situated on a bridge that stretched over the Wasteland. It looked rather scenic. Too bad that scenic nostalgia wouldn't last long. "Raiders incoming," Kate warned me as we climbed a mountainous hill.

True enough, bullets peppered the boulders in front of us. "Shit!" We went behind the cover of the rocks as more bullets flew past us. "Well this sucks."

"No shit," Kate replied before firing off rounds from her Assault Rifle. I started to think of a way to get out of this mess. Unfortunately, I've never fought an uphill battle before. I guessed that this was perfect for the occasion.

"Okay draw their fire," I spoke, "I'm going to take them out." I pulled out my Sniper Rifle.

"Have you even used that thing before?"

"Nope but practice make's perfect."

Kate huffed then started spraying and praying with her Assault Rifle. She definitely was not that experienced. She lost her cool quite often in the heat of things. While she sprayed her Assault Rifle, I took aim and found a target before firing. I missed. "Fuck." I fired again, this time hitting its mark. A Raider started screaming from our side. I quickly looked to see her coming with a machete. I dropped my gun and then kicked the woman in her stomach while taking her machete from her hand then decapitating her. Then out of nowhere, I was hit with a baseball bat from behind. I blacked out.

….

I woke up to the sounds of her screams. Everything went to hell in just a matter of minutes. There was one Raider apparently and he had taken us by surprise. "You awake kid?" The Raider asked slamming my head against the back of something hard. We were inside some kind of junk yard. I groaned as I felt my hands bound behind my back by rope.

"Good," The Raider said smirking and backing up. He kicked me in the side. "That was for killing my whore you asshole! Now I got to find another one!"

I coughed. "You know what I'm going to do to you kid?" He spat. "I'm going to chop every limb off you've got. Then I'm going to chop your balls off and then pull out your intestines. It's a painful way to die. But you know what?" He laughed. "I think before I kill you, I want you to see what's going to happen to your little lady friend." I heard her scream. Kate. He pulled her from around the corner and her limbs were strapped to a wooden plank by rope similar to how I found her to begin with at the Super Duper Mart only this time, she was still clothed.

"No…" I uttered waking up completely.

"Oh yes," the Raider said grinning ear to ear with a sadistic look. "You get to watch." Kate screamed even more, crying her eyes. The Raider pulled out a switchblade and walked over to her. He cut her top off then tore it from her revealing her bra that didn't last long either. He did horrible things to her that involved her breasts, his mouth, and several slaps to the said breasts. I struggled against my bonds. Next he cut her pants off then went straight for her other female part. But before his head went between her legs, he looked at me. "Oh you want some action too?"

"Stop you Bastard!" I yelled in anger.

The Raider merely laughed. "I take that as a yes!" He said leaning her and her board up. "Here." He leaned her to where she was facing me, her breasts pressing against my face. I was seeing red. Pure red. If I got my hands on this guy, he would suffer. Kate was crying hysterically. I couldn't do anything about it. I was sure my wrists would start to bleed as much as I was tugging against my bonds.

"Don't hog her now!" The Raider said mockingly before pulling her off of me and letting her flop on her back. "I want her more than you…." He reached down crouching and massaging her breasts while grinning with the sadistic evil look. "But I guess it's time to quit playing with her. I'm going to carve her out real nice. Then she'll die and I'll just go ahead and kill you."

"No!" Angela screamed as the Raider lowered himself. She tried to shake herself loose but to no avail. He took off his pants, positioned himself, and forced himself inside her. He held her mouth shut as he moved all in her. I couldn't close my eyes. It was the most horrible thing I've ever witnessed, yet I couldn't turn away. Before long, Kate just gave up. He defiled her. Defiled her very being for the next ten minutes. The man let out a series of moans before pulling himself out of her.

"That was so good," He said putting his pants back on, "Too bad I have to kill you now darlin'. You're a masterpiece. But I guess it wouldn't sit well with the rest of the ladies in my crew if you are around." He pulled out his switchblade again. Kate didn't move. She had lost all train of thought and was so traumatized there wasn't anything anyone could do. I found something sharp against my arm near my bounded wrists. I started moving my arms up and down over it where the rope was. I had to get out of this. I had to save her.

"Kid you didn't know what you were missing out with her," The Raider laughed, "She was one hell of a ride. Now if you want, I can get real creative." I just glared at him still moving my arms up and down trying to cut my bonds. "Try all you like kid. You aren't slipping out of those ropes. He didn't know that I was trying to cut them. "Oh well," The Raider said shrugging, "I guess it's time to quit beating around the bush." He went to Kate and crouched down at her face while stroking her cheek. "You're one hell of a woman." His hands moved down to her breasts. "But all good things never last." I felt the rope go slack as the Raider sliced her across the chest. She screamed with agonizing pain as he made another swipe around her stomach, then he rubbed his free hand over her reproductive part.

"You bastard! If I get out of here I'm going to kill you." I yelled in fury still struggling against my bonds.

He laughed. "If that pissed you off," The Raider said smirking, "Then this'll kill you." He did the thing I feared the most. He killed her. He sliced her jugular. My world shattered and I saw red again.

"NO!" I had finally broken free of my bonds surprising the Raider. I tackled him to the ground, overpowering him and then broke his arm that had the switchblade. He yelled in pain rolling in agony. I grabbed the switchblade and just started stabbing. The Raider was way past dead. His body was covered in blood due to the multiple stab wounds. I was no exception to being covered in blood due to my anger. I got off him and went to Kate's side. She was gone. "No…" I said in complete devastation, "no, no, no, no…." For the first time in a long time, I wept. Why? Why did this have to happen? This truly was hell. The rape of an innocent woman, whom I had finally found as a possible companion in this stupid ass world, was unheard of. She died because of one man's sick mind. Raider; I hated that term. I stared at Kate's lifeless body. "No! God please No!" I yelled at the skies. I yelled to hell. I lost my balance and fell back on my rear wiping tears from my face.

I don't know how long I sat there, but I didn't move for the longest time. My mind was racing in several different directions. I failed to protect her because of my weakness. My weakness….I was weak. I know what it was. I was too carefree….I didn't think things through and I didn't notice the Raider who ended it all for us. Why did I live? I wouldn't have found my father, but if I could've taken her place, I would have in a heartbeat. I stared at her more. I huffed finally looking around. I saw a shovel. I found myself staring at the thing for a few minutes, just a blank stare. It took me three hours to bury her and by that time, it was night. There was no way in hell I was going anywhere tonight. I retrieved my belongings and found myself sleeping in a destroyed bus.

…

I woke up to the distant sounds of barking. I ignored it and closed my eyes again. The barking stopped at first. I remembered the previous day's experiences. Kate and I almost got out alive. We escaped big green men only for her to be raped and killed by a Raider who was right around my age. I opened my eyes as I remembered those events. Kate was so full of life. She was a good woman, soft, shy, and gentle. Maybe that's why she died. She couldn't handle it. She couldn't handle the wasteland. If she couldn't, how could I? She's been out here all her life, but I'm just some kid who lived in the safest tunnel all his life. Why did I live and she didn't? Was it fate? Was it Luck? No. It was the choice that bastard made. He decided to rape her in front of me then kill her. I huffed again trying to choke back tears. I have killed before, and it took me a while to cope with it. But how do you cope with losing someone you care about right in front of you? We were just about to hit it off pretty well.

I closed my eyes again and my thoughts drifted. I lived in a world where the weak are preyed upon the by the ruthless and strong. This world needed help and I knew it. But being like I was now, it was going to get people killed. It was a proven fact. I lost two people in my team in Megaton. Two people I didn't even know, but still. They died when I couldn't handle the burden of stopping two Mercs and a shady businessman. Kate died when we weren't paying attention. But she had to live through rape first, before the Raider slit her throat. Twice people died because on my account. I wanted revenge. I wanted Justice. Maybe I should just stop being too damn friendly with people. I've had enough already. Being friendly with people gets them killed. I'll make this world a safer place without being so damn kind. I huffed.

I made up my mind. There is zero tolerance for Raiders. Zero Tolerance for lack of common sense in combat. I _will_ change. I have to otherwise I'm going to just get myself killed eventually. I needed to train harder than before, become a killing machine that no one else could be. I needed to find solutions to problems that no one else would even try. Bravery and stupidity had a thin distinguishable line. I was about to become borderline. It felt good. Despite all the hardships I just went through, it felt good to let it all go. I will not allow myself to die or anyone else that depends on me.

"Help!" I heard from somewhere in the Junkyard. My eyes snapped open. I heard the sounds of barking and laughing. I got up and walked quickly towards the sounds. I turned a corner to see three Raiders killing a merchant with sledgehammers and melee weaponry. I was about to engage them from behind when I saw a dog tackle one of them and rip his throat out.

"Holy shit!" One of the Raiders exclaimed backing away before going to slam his sledgehammer onto the dog. The dog pounced away then jumped at the Raider nipping his arm before going for the neck again. The Raider's throat was ripped out. The last Raider went to raise a pipe when the dog barked and growled viciously. The Raider hesitated for a split second and the Dog barked again before running at the female. She smacked him across the head with the lead pipe. The dog shook his head and pounced ripping her throat out viciously. It looked at the three bodies before walking over to the dead Wastelander whining. It sat down and howled sorrowfully.

My initial shock over this dog's viciousness was eradicated the moment I saw this scene. The dog was just trying to protect its master. It was mourning. I felt bad for the dog. We had both just lost someone. I thought I was done with stupid decisions for the rest of my life. But I just did another. I walked up to the dog and his deceased owner. The dog's ears perked up and looked at me. It growled slightly before looking at me with its head tilted. It had different colored eyes, one of them being gold and the other blue. Anyone could tell this was a male.

"You're alright," I said gently.

The dog whimpered.

"It hurts losing your master doesn't it?" I asked.

As if he understood me, the dog barked.

"I've lost a few people myself," I continued, "So we both know the pain."

The Dog whined coming over and licked my hand.

"You're pretty friendly for a dog that just killed a bunch of Raiders," I said petting him.

The dog started panting then let out a bark again. I got an idea. If humans seemed to die around me a lot, what if I could get this dog to follow me? I could train him to help me out. He seemed to be without fear, just loyalty.

"Your master must've trained you well," I spoke, "Do you want to come with me? It'll be good to have some company."

The dog tilted his head before barking.

"Okay then," I said nodding and I looked around at the bodies. I looted them and kept going. I made sure to grab any caps I came across. Carrying two backpacks was tough enough. I knew how this dog could be useful to me now other than just a companion. When I got back to Megaton, I would definitely have to make a harness that could fit him so he could carry anything that was light such as ammo or caps. I looked at the Wastelander's corpse with much thought.

An hour later, I stuck the shovel blade in the ground with my dog right beside me. In front of us were two graves each with a cross and both were right at the stone wall in the center of the Junkyard. I etched words into the wall with my combat knife. Roughly it said: _In loving memory of two good souls that perished here on August 22, 2277. Their spirits live on inside of their friends._

I took a moment of silence bowing my head and closing my eyes. From this day forward, I am a wanderer with one purpose; to make this world a better place. The dog stared silently at the etched words on the wall. I crouched down and petted him.

"Come on boy," I said, "I've got a promise to keep." He licked my head before barking. I stood up and looked at my Pipboy's map. According to this thing, the Minefield was about a half a mile away Northeast. My dog and I walked around the large wall and found a gap in the fencing to see a small neighborhood at the base of a large slope that had a water tower on it. It also looked like there were factory exhaust towers on the other side. If I wasn't mistaking it, there was a large destroyed four story building between the Eastern side of the slope and the little neighborhood.

The trip over there was uneventful, just nothing but ceaseless walking. Eventually we came up on it. I knew this place was a death trap, and I didn't know if the dog would set off any mines in here. I looked at him before making my decision. "Hey boy," I said leaning down and rubbing his head, "Listen. I want you to stay right here next to this house okay?"

He tilted his head in response. "I'm going inside of a minefield. I don't want you to get hurt okay?" The Dog whined. "I know. Just stay." I got up, put Kate's backpack down and backed away. "Stay and guard this." The dog whined again but didn't move.

I walked around the side of the house and looked at the minefield. I could see the mines already. If I remembered correctly, the Frag mines started blinking when I entered their detection range. After that, I had three seconds to press the red sensor to deactivate them. I breathed. Life or death. Bravery, stupidity, or somewhere in between, which would be borderline. Time to go to work. I looked over and broke a wooden plank out of the nearby picket fencing and slid it over towards the mine I had spotted. I was about twelve feet away and the wooden plank was six. I walked over to the wooden plank and waved my hands around. Nothing. I stretched my hand out towards the mine only to have my heart jump to my throat. The thing started to beep. I backed away quickly and the thing exploded in three seconds. I quickly felt the heat of the explosion and realized that the Frag mine's area of effect was six feet in radius which meant that it had a twelve foot effective range. I frowned. Okay. Now that I knew that, I needed to pick another mine and attempt to disarm it. If I failed, I wouldn't be around to remember it being a bad idea.

I breathed again looking at a mine. It was relatively close to an old car so that meant that I needed to disarm it otherwise it would be overkill. My dog barked looking around the corner of the building. I turned to see him.

"It's alright boy," I encouraged, "I'm fine." I heard him whine. I turned to look at the Frag Mine again. It was now or never. I ran for the mine, hearing it beeping when I was in range. _Three….two…._click! I pressed the button on top and the thing stopped beeping. It was deactivated. I was alive. I win. I picked up the Frag mine. Moira would like to take a good look at this. To get some practice in, I started towards the next Frag Mine when something stopped me. I heard the unmistakable sound of sniper fire. I heard a _ping _sound as it hit the car nearby. The car immediately ignited as the bullets hit the car's nuclear motor. Fuck.

I ran and jumped behind a fallen tree just in time. The car exploded leaving a green lighting effect and heat washed over the area. A sniper was around here. I peered over the fallen tree to see the four story building. That would be the only direction the shot could've come from. I looked around and judged my distance. This guy was either a bad shot or he was aiming for the cars. I decided to run for it. I was fast enough to run through the minefield without risking dying. I just had to make sure I didn't run through close to the center of their range. The sniper shot at the car I was running to. I quickly moved against the wall of a destroyed house to avoid the explosion. I pulled out my sniper rifle and pointed it at the building. Sure enough there was an old man up there sitting in the window with his gun drawn. But I couldn't hit him from this angle. I had to think smart. I looked over at the playground and got an idea. I pulled out a Frag Grenade and lobbed it that way. The effects were immediate. I looked at the man who had his gun pointed at that direction. I went right and around the building then straight for the building he was held up in. I snuck in disarming several frag mines on the lower level before ascending the stairs quietly. The first floor I came to was nothing but a bed and some provisions. When I came up to the man's level I saw him scoping out the entire minefield again.

I crept up behind him with my combat knife pulled out. "Hey." I said.

"AH!" He yelled turning around and firing. I smacked the gun away from myself and he just kept firing.

"I'm not going to hurt you!"

"Get away!" He said letting his sniper go and then pulling out a pistol, "You will not get me!" I stabbed him before he could fire. He looked at me with pleading eyes holding his wound. "I won't become a slave…." He raised his pistol again only this time firing a bullet into his brain. I stared. The man thought I was a Slaver? He was willing to take his own life to keep from being a slave? I let out a sigh. This was just another way someone was molded by the harsh conditions out here. I took his pistol from his hand and then emptied it of the magazine.

"I'm sorry," I said mourning him. I began to scavenge around getting Sniper Rifle Ammo, the food he had collected, and some basic meds. I started to disarm the minefield as I went along and eventually checked out the houses. They were full of Prewar Money and Meds with the occasional weapon and ammo. Afterwards, I decided it was time to go. The minefield was a ghost town now. _Ghost._ That word seemed to come up at the most convenient times. I walked back and retrieved my dog and the supplies.

"Sorry about that boy," I said to him as I tore off half of my robe, "We're ready to get going. Come on." I had my blue hood with the same cloth covering my face and part of the robe acting as half of a cape that covered my two backpacks that were tied together on one side of my back. He barked following me. Back on the hill where the Junkyard was located, I stole one final glance at the Minefield then never looked back again. I looked at the graves of the two that had fallen the previous day. I paid my respects once again before leaving with my dog in tow. I retraced my steps and traveled back down the sloped terrain towards the Potomac River. Everything was the same, yet empty of life. The gas station, the streets Kate and I passed on our way here, and even the bridge that crossed over the Potomac near the Super Duper Market. By the time we got to the Super Duper Market, the sun was behind the buildings. We camped out inside of the Market. It was eerily quiet. I guessed that I should've seen this coming. Without Kate, even if I only knew her for a few days, things were different. But having a dog here made it better.

I cooked us up some food while my dog checked the place out. The place was starting to smell. I guess it was from the decomposing Raider Corpses that were still in here. After dinner was done and we ate, I sucked it up and threw all the corpses out front in a pile then lit them on fire. Afterwards, I found some Abraxo cleaner and covered the entire place up. Eventually, the smell left the building. This place too was like a Ghost town. _Ghost._ There was that word again. Why did it appeal to me? I sighed as my mind drifted off into thinking about today's events. It was enough to motivate me to write about my experience in the Minefield.

_Today's world is filled with dangers. They could be monstrous, human, inhuman, or what started this Post-Apocalypse, Explosive. Explosives can be an invaluable asset, or one's demise. Take example for having a Minefield. The tactical advantages to the one who set it up would be endless, such as using it to protect yourself while you sleep soundly at night. Another thing is using it as an early warning system while you find a high spot within it to snipe from. The tactic always works if you keep attentive to your surroundings. But there is also a way around the mines, only if you are experienced enough to deal with them. A standard MF10 Frag mine has a lethal blast range of six to eight feet. Its detection range is five feet. Theoretically, if you move fast enough, you can avoid them; however, if you're not careful death will be the outcome. To disarm the mine, just press the red lit button. To activate them, you will be given a thirty second timer after you press the activation button. Be sure for safety reasons that you keep the safety switches on to avoid accidentally setting the mine off. _

I looked up at nothing in particular but my eyes landed on the cash registers. It was pretty late. It was another day's work in the Wasteland. I yawned and put up my belongings before finding sleep in the Pharmacy again. I dreamed. It wasn't a dream. It was a nightmare. I relived Kate's rape and murder. I relived those agonizing minutes. I woke up with my dog licking me in the face wiping away my tears. I pushed his head away lightly.

"I'm alright boy," I said leaning up and looking at him. I stared at the wall on the other side of the room before breaking my trance and stretching. I got up, gathered my things, and we left the Super Duper Market. I saw the burnt bodies of the dead Raiders on my way out. Another one of those floating spherical robots was hanging around the Parking Lot. My dog and I made our way back to Megaton. Half way there, a giant ant came at us from downhill. To my surprise, my dog tackled the ant and snapped its neck from behind.

Other than that, the trip to Megaton wasn't eventful. Deputy Wield and Stockholm were in their usual spots. Stockholm waved as soon as he saw me, but looked slightly confused when I approached with a dog and not my other companion. He opened the gates nevertheless and allowed me in. The town was still active, everyone busily fulfilling their day. A few settlers waved at me and welcomed me back, but I didn't reply. I just walked into my house and unloaded everything I had collected onto the shelf. Wadsworth greeted me again as usual.

"Good morning Sire," He spoke, "Where is Mistress Kate?"

"She won't be coming back," I replied plainly, "She was murdered on our expedition."

"Oh…" The Mister Handy said, "I am terribly sorry Master Nathan."

"It's alright Wadsworth," I replied, "Could you give me a few moments to myself?"

"Of course sir," Wadsworth replied before hovering off into his closet and closing it behind him. _Damn that Robot_ for making me remember her. I was trying not to remember her. I am trying to move on. I _will_ move on. To keep my mind off of her, I did a head count on whatever I had gotten. I was obviously richer. I could afford a few things now. I estimated I had around ten thousand caps already due to all the prewar money. I frowned as I came across something that was in Kate's backpack. It was a little box she had. Inside it was a photo of her and on the back it said, to Nate. She had a necklace of some sort in her box. I huffed trying to keep from tearing up again. I cared too much for someone I only knew for a few days. I eventually put it on a shelf in her room. I went through everything I had and stocked the shelves up. I was looking at my own personal little armory here. I put on my poker face by keeping it hidden and left my home with my dog.

I walked over to Moira's with my report, so far not spotting any of the three friends I had made here. My arrival inside her store was unnoticed by them as well. They were probably in the Brass Lantern or Moriarty's. I didn't care at the moment. Moira instantly recognized me and spoke with her normal tone.

"How were those hot little potatoes?" She asked grinning. When she found out I didn't laugh, she tried to explain the joke. "You know…because they're on the ground….like potatoes. And hot….because they….um explode." She regained her composure. "Anyways what's up?"

"I got through it," I said giving her a frag mine and my findings, "And here's my observations."

"Cool!" She said perking up, "I've got just the reward. I know you may not want to see anymore explosives for a while, but obviously you know your way around them. Have a couple of rainy-day toys of mine. And looking at this landmine gives me an idea. It's a terrible device that does terrible things of course, but it's easy for you to make your own too."

Not receiving my reward yet, I continued the conversation. "That completes the first wave of research correct?" I asked.

"Of course," She said, "but why don't we take a break for a little bit? I've got to compile all of this research."

"Fine," I replied nodding.

"Oh don't forget these!" She handed me a few Frag Grenades, some kind of Schematic, and a couple of Stimpaks.

"Thank you," I replied huskily collecting my reward and getting ready to walk out.

"Hey wait a minute," Moira exclaimed, "Where's that woman Kate at?"

I cringed inwardly but kept stone-faced. "She died." I walked out but I could hear Moira's last word.

"Oh."

I made my way back to my home and piddled around. I cleaned my guns, organized them, read a few pages in a book, and made my own schematics involving my guns. The place was nothing but my own personal little playground. I was content with being left alone. The next day however, the Sheriff came by. He seemed to come by every time there was something wrong or just to tell me something important. I opened my door to see him.

"How you doing Nate?" He asked looking as if he was trying to figure me out, "Do you mind if I come in?"

"Sure," I said with my emotionless expression. He closed the door behind him.

He took a quick look around seeing how much more things I had. "Are you alright?" he asked concerned.

"No." The word came out before I knew it. I sighed looking at my salvaged non-working Power Armor. I didn't know what I was going to do now. With Moira wanting to take a break on the Survival Guide and I couldn't get a solid lead out of Colin about my dad, I was stuck in a bind.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked sitting down, "I heard from Moira what happened. I'm sorry about that."

"No offense," I said a little too hostility, "But why do you care?" He looked at me with surprise but not backlashing at me.

"It's my job to care," Lucas replied with an encouraging tone, "Plus I figured it is what friends do."

The word friend was strange to me inwardly. Externally, I guess I did have a few such as Lucas here, Billy Creel, Stockholm, and Jericho. I sighed letting my arms flop to my side. "I'm sorry Lucas," I said giving in, "I just didn't expect us to be overwhelmed. My mistake cost Kate her life."

"What mistake?" Lucas asked brow furrowing.

"We were engaging Raiders uphill," I said, "They spotted us first. We took cover behind a boulder and started shooting back. Somehow, one of them got around us and knocked me unconscious. Maybe Kate too, I don't know. All I know is that I was tied up in a Junkyard with Kate bound by each limb. The Raider who had us started ranting about how pissed he was I killed his whore or something. So he took it out on her, made me watch as he raped her. I was trying to get out Lucas. I was trying to cut free so I could save her. It happened a second too late. He slit her throat. I saw Red. I did overkill, I couldn't stop myself. It was too much. I gave her a proper burial in the Junkyard. I completed my task I told Moira I'd do and came back home. Kate died, because I didn't fucking pay attention. How do you live with something like that?"

He stared at me with pitying eyes then sighed. "Damn," He said rubbing the back of his neck, "I'm sorry for that Nate. To see her raped and killed? That's a fate no one should have to endure on either end. Overkill was totally justified. I don't blame you for that. I don't know if I can say anything that'll make you feel better, but what I will say is the best advice I can give anyone even if it pisses them off. That's life out here in the Wasteland. People die all the time Nate. Damn good people too. I've seen it happen more than once. The only thing someone like us can do is move on. Move on but don't forget. I know that's the hardest thing in the world to do right now. Getting revenge will feel like justice all the time, but in reality it'll just consume you and turn you into someone no better than the one you killed. Don't let hatred do that to you. A good friend of mine turned on me for that, and it cost him his life. Do what is right and things will eventually work out even if it doesn't seem that way."

I stood there silently, letting his words sink in. He was right. He was always right when it came to his version of Justice. "Thanks," I said nodding, "Best advice I've heard since I got some from my dad."

"You're Welcome Nate," Lucas replied, "Now I've got to get back to my rounds. Try to have a good day will you? Oh by the way. Where did the dog come from?"

"The same place Kate died," I replied, "I befriended him and we've been traveling together ever since."

"Okay then," Lucas replied not thinking anything else of it and leaving.

I looked at my dog who stared back panting happily. "I've got to think of a name for you." He tilted his head.

I didn't really try to come up with a name, but I guess that would be better to do than sit here. Besides, I was going to need to learn to train this dog. He was obedient enough to follow me and kill, but I wondered if he knew how to fetch or retrieve something. Maybe it was time to teach him a few things to help me out. But first, the dog needed a name to respond to. I looked at him. "Sam? Ghost? Gunner? Riley?" The dog barked. "Gambit? Wolf? Meat? Dogmeat? Oh hell no. Not Dogmeat. Riley?" The Dog barked. "Riley?" The dog barked again. "You want your name to be Riley?" The dog barked again panting. "Riley it is then." He barked again affectionately jumping into my lap. "Okay down boy," I laughed slightly. I started on Riley's training.

I wrote on one of the chalkboards I had purchased from Moira. I wrote:

_Riley's training-_

_Riley already responds to his name, knows to follow and stay. His intelligence is pretty high for a dog. I must work on more methods to make him more useful than just a companion._

_Phase 1:_

_Potty training, Fetching and retrieving_

_Phase 2:_

_Spotting danger, recognizing friend and foe_

_Phase 3:_

_Scavenging small items such as Meds, ammo, and food_

_Phase 4 (Experimental and a longshot):_

_Covert Operations such as stealth and distracting enemies_

I looked at my dog who was just staring at the board as if he understood it. This truly was an intelligent dog, almost like another person. I made a mental note to see if Moira had any kind of tennis balls for seeing how well he would learn to fetch. Speaking of which, I went in, bought a few things, and came home. End of story. I didn't make any conversation with her if I could help it. I was turning out to hate conversing with people unless there was business involved. But shrugging off Lucas, Jericho, and Billy was low even for me. I just wanted to cope with it alone for a little while.

I had gotten a few tennis balls and a small carpet-like dog bed for Riley. The moment I brought out one of the Tennis Balls, Riley went into a playful stance panting. "Oh you know what this is don't you boy?" I asked holding the tennis ball up. Riley barked. I laughed. "Okay time for some training," I said, "Sit." Riley tilted his head. "Sit." Immediately, Riley sat on his hind legs obediently. "Good boy." I tossed the ball to the other side of the room and Riley bounded for it, pouncing on the ball before sitting down. "Bring it here boy." Riley tilted his head before dropping the ball and coming back over to me. That's where his training ended apparently with his old master.

"Alright," I said, "Let's see…" I went over it in my head trying to figure out how I was going to teach him to fetch. I think that his previous master just used him as a guard dog. But I was going to expand Riley's usefulness. I kept being repetitive. I'd throw the ball and say _fetch_ and he'd go after it then told him to _come_. Every time, he would drop the ball and come back. I said _no_. Eventually throughout the day, he started to bring the ball back which I rewarded him with pieces of Iguana Bits. The next day I kept it up, only this time teaching Riley to fetch without me recalling him which went better than the initial fetch. If it was one thing about him, he enjoyed learning and being active. Somehow, he was smart enough to already have potty training under wraps. I guessed that Riley's previous owner already did this. Good.

With Phase One of his training complete in less than two days, I decided to take him out of Megaton for a while and train him in phase two. It took me a few days just for this phase as well. His training eventually involved him letting out a low growl when he smelled something potentially hostile. He seemed to already know the difference between friend and foe though. He was completely obedient, but he was loud. When he saw an enemy or hostile animal such as a weird looking creature called a mole rat, he started barking uncontrollably which attracted a pack of them. He dispatched two easily and I finished the rest with a single silent shot with my silenced N99. Eventually, after a grueling two days of hunting, he got the idea to be calmer. Phase three turned out to be more fun than anything else. For starters, I trained him to identify the three different things I wanted him to eventually retrieve if I'm scavenging. I trained him to understand what I wanted. He would look for meds, ammo, or food. He picked up on that part easily. Getting him to retrieve whichever one was another thing. It took four days for him to learn just this little fraction of phase three. The next part of the phase was considerably harder. I tried to get him to react to the way each smelled different in case there was something in a container he couldn't get to. He was to bark once to get my attention, while staring at the container. For Meds he would stand to signify what was in there, for ammo he would sit, and for food he'd lay down. I ended up training him in my house; usually hiding whichever item I wanted to train him with under one of three buckets for him to find. Repetition. It's how I trained Riley. Eventually he caught on with nothing but a week and a half of training from Phase one to Phase three. I decided that I was slowly driving myself to boredom. It was time to get moving. I needed to get out there and do something.

After days of hardly any contact with anyone in Megaton, I finally decided to come out and sit in Moriarty's. Moriarty was upstairs doing something. Nova and Gob were downstairs. "Hey kid," Gob said as I sat down. Riley sat beside my bar stool. "How you doing?"

"Alive," I spoke with a rough voice.

"Listen," Gob said, "I don't want to bring up bad blood at the moment with whatever you're going through, but Moriarty doesn't like animals in his saloon."

I shrugged. "Just give me a beer."

Gob gave me a confused look. "You don't drink," Gob said unsurely.

"Don't worry about it," I said huskily, "One ain't gonna kill me. And if Moriarty fucks with me, I'll let my dog piss all over his bed sheets." Gob handed me a beer from the refrigerator.

"Wow that bad huh?" Nova asked. She was probably referring to my inner confliction.

"Yeah," I said popping the top off.

By the time I finished my beer, Billy came in and looked just as surprised as Gob and Nova did. "Hey Nate," He said patting my shoulder then sat beside me, "You doing alright man?"

"Trying to be." I threw the bottle with precision and it landed in the trashcan behind gob. "I'm just bored out of my mind."

"I can tell," Billy said, "Listen man, you shouldn't be cooped up here in Megaton. It's probably home to you. Or as close to a home as you can get, but sitting around here ain't helping you."

"Ain't that the truth," I muttered frustrated.

Billy sighed seeing my frustration then heard something on the Radio. "Hey Gob!" He said turn that up would ya?"

"Sure," Gob replied complying.

I listened to the Radio.

"_This is Three Dog and you're listening to Galaxy News Radio. Now tell me something children? Are all yall ready for some news? Good, because I got some on someone who is proving very interesting even if he hasn't been out here for too long. Not too long ago as a matter of fact, I reported that a cat had recently left Vault 101. His name was James…."_

My eyes widened.

"…_.good guy. Turns out, it gets better! I've got a new report here that said someone else had just climbed out of that hole a week or two ago. What the hell is going down there? Revolution? Vacation? Somebody fart? Your guess is as good as mine kids. But I'll tell you what I do know. This kid's been out here traveling alone lately with a dog near Megaton. Speaking of which, guess what children? Got some great news out of the town of Megaton itself. Turns out that live atomic bomb in the town's center has finally been deep-sixed for good. The town's sheriff, one Lucas Simms, commissioned the one the only Lone Wanderer from Vault 101 to disarm the nasty nuke, and the kid delivered. Hey, nice work 101. Next time you're in the neighborhood, pop into the studio. Ol' Three dog's toaster's been on the fritz. Oh! And a little birdy told me this guy was out doing some kind field research when he came across some Raider's over at some old supermarket. At least, I'm guessing that was him. I got this information from my little news web, all claiming that they saw a Raider going crazy over some ghost in the market. Sure enough, a few Waste landers went to check the place out to see nothing but a bunch of dead Raider's all over the place and it was picked cleaned of anything valuable. My guess was that it was Mr. Lone Wanderer due to popular belief he was out that way. You gotta wonder; why the hell did that kid come out here? Wasn't that Vault supposed to be shut tighter than a tick's ass? What the hell is he out here researching anyways? Our humbly hellish soil and irradiated waters? Your guess is as good as mine on that one too. We'll see how this goes kiddies. I think that this "ghost" is not here to play around with anyone who tries and fucks with him. So far, it seems he's only after the baddies. Finger's crossed and good luck to all yall out there in Post-Apocalypia. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy some music."_

Inwardly, I felt a burden lift off my shoulders for two reasons. One, it seemed that my hard work in helping the town of Megaton was being recognized. Two, I finally got an idea where my dad was, or at least had some kind of contact with this Three Dog. I had to figure out a way to get in touch with the disc-jockey. But I wasn't in a rush. Dad was probably out there doing some science experiment. But that didn't change the fact I needed to find something to do and fast.

"You see?" Billy said, "You're helpfulness has earned you recognition by G.N.R," Billy said, "And I do have to admit, you did look white as a ghost when you came out of that Vault coming after your dad."

I chuckled. "Yeah well," I said smirking, "I didn't do it for the recognition. I only did it because it was right." Our conversation was interrupted by a young blonde headed woman. She was a pretty girl.

"Excuse me?" She said, "You're him right? The Lone Wanderer? The guy who saved us all?"

"Something along those lines," I replied.

"Hello," She spoke, "My name's Lucy West and uh….I was kind of hoping you could do me a favor."

"Shoot."

"Yeah uh," Lucy said cheeks going red slightly, "I was um…hoping you would deliver a letter to my parents for me?" What did I look like? A delivery boy? "I'll…uh pay you when you get back."

"Sure…" I spoke indifferently.

"Oh um….thank you." She said slightly confused. Truthfully, I accepted the request a little too quickly myself.

"Where am I going?" I asked plainly.

"Oh um Arefu?" She said handing me a letter. _Where the fuck is Arefu? _"It's North of here on an overpass. You can't miss it. Just follow the Potomac. When you get there, talk to David West. He's my daddy."

"Very well," I said with my newfound professional attitude, "I'll leave in the morning."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet," I said getting up, "I haven't completed the task yet. See you around Billy."

…..

_Billy's POV_

"See you kid," I said turning around. No one saw this kid leave the building, but he was gone. Even his dog.

"So Billy…." The sounds of Miss Lucy West came, "What can you tell me about that guy?"

Nova started to laugh. "Quite the charmer isn't he?" She interrupted, "I can't tell you how many women had come in here looking to get with him. I think that girl Kate he rescued was the only one who got somewhat close to him before she died in a Raider ambush."

"I like competition," Lucy said smirking.

"Good luck with that honey," Nova replied, "That boy isn't really into talking to people much unless it's business. Moira was smitten with him for a moment before she realized that all he wanted to do was finish that damn book. He didn't pay any attention to her at all. Ever since that girl Kate died, he's been distant from everyone."

"Why's that?" Lucy asked.

"Beats me," Nova said, "I don't butt into the kid's business. He's got his own agenda."

"I can tell you why," I said grabbing a beer from Gob, "The kid saw how life was out here. That girl Kate? She didn't just die. Nate talked with the Sheriff. They were both taken captive by the Raider that knocked them out. That damn Raider made Nate watch while he raped the poor girl, then killed her. Imagine coming out of the Vault with something like that in your head. He got a hard dose of what life's like out here. I'm telling you girls something right now. Gob and Nova are my witnesses. That kid was a good kid, had his morals and was a bit too kind for his own good. But he's changing his tune."

"You think he'll go bad or something?" Gob asked.

"No nothing like that," Billy said, "Far from it. Mark my words. That kid's going to change everything out there for the better. I've seen it. He just might not be such a kid about it anymore. He'll be gruffer, guard his heart, become cold to his enemies. I can see it now. I've seen it many times before in a bunch of decent folk."

There was a short silence. "Wow," Lucy said sarcastically, "That was so poetic Billy." This caused a few laughs from Nova, Gob, and I. I took a swig from my beer. _Yeah….that kid's something else. I think Jericho and Lucas were right. The Wasteland just got a new hero. Too bad he had to learn the hard way how life is out here._

…

**I hope everyone didn't mind the change of Dogmeat to Riley. I like the name of Dogmeat strangely, and usually I don't like changing the names of characters, but I wanted to name something after my German Shephard, Riley. Dogmeat seemed like the suitable replacement. Riley is everything Dogmeat is in-game but I felt that I needed to add a touch of realism to the story involving the intelligent dog, hence the dog training. If you're wondering when the main quest will pick up in this story, all I can say is soon and maybe within the next few chapters. Our Lone Wanderer or "Ghost" is learning the hard way about life in the Wasteland. I felt the only way to cope with Kate's death (Sorry for killing her for her OC fans), is to come across Dogmeat's character and keep busy. I hope that it was convincing enough.**


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